NEW YORK (AP) – Mia Farrow took some Twitter heat Wednesday for joining other angry social media posters and blasting out the business address of the dentist who killed the beloved lion Cecil in Zimbabwe.
Some apparently thought the actress had listed Walter Palmer’s home address in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, calling for her verified Twitter account to be suspended under the site’s terms of service.
A Twitter spokesman said the company does not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons. He directed The Associated Press to official Twitter rules and policies that allow wiggle room on disciplinary action when information was previously posted or displayed elsewhere on the Internet prior to being put on Twitter.
The Farrow account deleted the original missive amid the outrage questioning whether the intent was to ensure Palmer is physically tracked down by haters. But the deletion did little to calm Twitter nerves.
One tweeter clucked back at Farrow, “Maybe Donald Trump should give out your phone number,” referring to Trump doing just that for a GOP rival, Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Another tweeted: “I hate what he did, but giving out his address isn’t the way to go.”
Farrow’s manager did not immediately return an email Wednesday seeking comment.
Exposing the Big Game 
Mia, you did the right thing, thank you! Enough is enough, let’s bring at least one of these killers to justice.
Oh, for Pete’s sake! The man is a dentist. He has a medical office. All anyone has to do is go on the Internet to get the information.
That said, I’m so happy to see the publicity that Cecil’s murder is getting. He has even been discussed by Jimmy Kemmel on his show, on Lawrence O’Donnell’s Last Word, on ABC news, among others. Some of the hyperbole is getting criticized, but that happens a lot on the Internet, and I suspect it happens in cases like this because there is so little recourse for animal abuse.
Hunters, especially, never seem to get either adequate or any punishment. They are always just mistaken, they thought they were shooting a coyote, not a wolf, or the dentist didn’t realize that Cecil was a “local favorite.” Since he has a felony on his record for a black bear hunt, and has killed 43 big game animals, it’s hard to believe he was really focusing on the fact that Cecil was a magnificent black-maned lion.
Some of the disturbing comments that are showing up on the sites for Cecil are complaints that those who care about what happened to him care more about animals than “infanticide” and trafficked baby parts and that those who mourn Cecil don’t care about human social justice. I hope some day people realize we have moved beyond the need to apologize for fighting animal abuse. It is possible to condemn more than one evil at a time but also to refuse a hierarchy of justice that places animals at the bottom.