For Cecil isn’t just any old lion. He’s one of Africa most famous and beloved lions, the star attraction at the Hwange national park, and a YouTube sensation for tourists.
He’s renowned as a gentle giant.
Such popularity cut no ice with Dr Palmer.
He and his fellow hunters tied a dead animal to their vehicle to lure Cecil out of the park, scenting an area half a kilometre away.
Cecil took the bait and strayed outside.
Dr Palmer pounced, firing his bow-and-arrow and striking Cecil.
He’s a great shot.
A New York Times profile of him in 2009 said he was ‘capable of skewering a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow.’
But Cecil didn’t die.
Instead, he stumbled off, wounded and bloodied, for 40 hours before Dr Palmer and his hunters finally caught up with him and shot him dead.
They then beheaded Cecil, and skinned him, before leaving his rotting carcass lying outside the park.
There was no report on whether Cecil died with a ‘dazzling smile’ on his face, but it’s probably safe to assume he didn’t.
As a result of his death though, conservation experts say it is now highly likely that all Cecil’s recently born cubs will now be killed by the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho – so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females.
Within hours of his name being revealed today, photos of Dr Palmer with his ‘trophies’ began popping up all over the internet

The cosmetic dentist gleefully cuddling myriad fabulous animals he’s just killed and mutilated. His trusty bow-and-arrows nestled against their still twitching bodies.
Dr Palmer is wanted for questioning on suspicion of breaking two laws – deliberately luring an animal from the park to kill it, and removing the lion’s identifying collar (which should have protected Cecil from being hunted), also a breach of the rules.
He and members of his team have been charged and will appear in court next week.
Within hours of his name being revealed today, photos of Dr Palmer with his ‘trophies’ began popping up all over the internet.
The cosmetic dentist gleefully cuddling myriad fabulous animals he’s just killed and mutilated.
He’s just a smirking, vile, callous assassin with no heart, whose shameless boasting of his disgusting exploits is almost as repellent as his exploits
His trusty bow-and-arrows nestled against their still twitching bodies.
Dr Palmer’s beatific smile ever present, those twinkling kindly eyes shining through the camera lens.
The pictures make me puke.
Dr Palmer makes me puke.
He’s just a smirking, vile, callous assassin with no heart, whose shameless boasting of his disgusting exploits is almost as repellent as the exploits themselves.
What he does isn’t ‘hunting’. It’s not a fair fight.
It’s a rich, well-armed man paying a fortune to hire a team of people to lure unsuspecting animals to their certain death. Then ripping them to pieces so their heads and horns can be retained as sickening trophies.
If convicted, Dr Palmer now faces a prison sentence, but captivity seems way too good for him.
Instead, I’d like to introduce a new sport – Big Human Hunting.
I will sell tickets for $50,000 to anyone who wants to come with me and track down fat, greedy, selfish, murderous businessmen like Dr Palmer in their natural habit.
We’d lure him out with bait – in his case I suggest the fresh blood of one of his victims would be very effective as it seems to turn him on so much – and once lured, we would all take a bow and fire a few arrows into his limbs to render him incapable of movement.
Then we’d calmly walk over, skin him alive, cut his head from his neck, and took a bunch of photos of us all grinning inanely at his quivering flesh.
This may sound harsh, but if you ask Dr Palmer, it’s really not.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3177611/PIERS-MORGAN-d-love-hunting-one-day-Dr-Walter-Palmer-killer-dentist-stuff-mount-office.html#ixzz3hDYOPPug
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