A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper
Just when the world was celebrating the successful efforts of one small group of humans to rescue a whale trapped on the rocky shoreline shoals of British Columbia earlier this month, there is this disgusting story.
Cecil the lion, blown away by a so-called ‘trophy hunter’ just for the friggin fun of it.
I am talking about the story reported late this July, 2015 about some asshole dentist, identified as Walter Palmer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A, working with a team of fellow ‘trophy hunters’ to lure a lion out of a wildlife sanctuary in Zimbabwe, Africa and blow it away.
And it was not just any lion that this tooth doctor drilled a a fatal arrow through. This lion was an iconic feline named Cecil – one of the most famous lions in the world and one that countless people travelled from abroad to catch even one fleeting glimpse of during a tour through the sanctuary.
Having bated the ground with food to lure him out of his zone of safety, Palmer caught a fleeting glimpse of Cecil, and used a bow and arrow rather than a rifle to finish him of so as not to attract too much attention.
Fortunately, if there is anything fortunate to say about this awful episode, the attention of the world is on this jerk right now and it appears that not too many people are buying his line that he didn’t know the lion was Cecil when he made his deadly shot.
After all, what does it really matter if it was this majestic animal or one of the other few remaining thousands of lions still living in the wild and in danger of extinction.
One cannot help but wonder what motivates creeps like Palmer to go out seeking to kill lions and other endangered animals just for the possible thrill of it. To put it rather crudely, one wonders if the drugs he may be taking for erectile dysfunction are not kicking in, so blowing away other species of strength and majesty is the only way a bastard like him feels he can get his rocks off.
It is good to know that authorities in Zimbabwe, would like to get their gloves on this waste of space so they can run him through their courts, where someone doing this kind of killing of an endangered species could be sentenced to years in jail.
It would be nice to see this dirt bag (and I admit that I am running out of appropriate names to call him here) locked up in an African jail for years. Maybe if the U.S. court through him behind bars in 2008 after he pleaded guilty for falsifying information he gave to federal wildlife agents about a bear he blew away in Wisconsin, Cecil would still be living as one of the kings of lions with his pride right now.
It would also be nice to believe that this obscene act will finally wake the world up to the need to take stronger steps to protect endangered species like lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos and so many others before they are forever gone – something that could happen in the lifetime of people born within past decade or two.
And now here I am about to channel my inner George Carlin, and I don’t care too much about who might not like it. I think that maybe what the courts ought to do – and this is coming from someone who doesn’t normally believe in capital punishtment, is make this worthless scum strip naked, cover him with gravy dripped from a beef roast, and throw him in a lion’s den.
I’d be willing to bet that if the courts decided to do this, you could broadcast it on a pay-per-view cable channel and it would get amazing ratings – probably better than the season finales of ‘Dancing with the Stars’, ‘America has Talent’ and ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ (or whatever those mind-nmbing show are called) combined. Eat your hearts out Donald Trump and Howard Stern.
In the meantime, if I were one of this dentist’s patients, I would drop him faster than an arrow piercing through the head of a lion. I’d rather have a tooth pulled out by someone named Gus with a pair of plyers.
(Niagara At Large invites any and all of you who also dare to share your first and last nameto also share your comments, in the space below, on this post.)
Niagara At Large 
Great piece Doug as was the BC story.
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Unfortunately for Palmer he killed the “wrong” lion. Had he, like many others, slaughtered lions he would have gotten away with it. In this case, he is caught. Apology or no apology, Palmer knowingly participated in a crime. He knew the lion was lured from the reserve. For this reason he should be charged and, based on his own admission, charged for killing the lion. I do not think your penalty would be applied but it sounds appetizing.
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This self appointed so called sportsman does this kind of thing for a hobby, talk about shooting fish in a barrel, This lion which was semi tame, was lured out of his safety area with pieces of meat and shot on a nearby farmers land , so this ego maniac could boast how he killed an icon of the country of Zimbabwe. This man is lower than a slug in my opinion, as a small cat lover, I have two, this a#$$ hole makes me shudder.!
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That grown men would pay to slaughter any animal, especially endangered species, is disgusting. Too much money, too much testosterone, too few grey cells. Awful story.
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Couldn’t have expressed our disgust any better Doug. A long prison term seems fitting doesn’t it. Let’s hope it happens.
Jim Armstrong
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How anyone can kill any animal just to puts its head on a wall is disgusting. But the way Cecil was treated is beyond words!!!! No punishment is good enough for this jerk.
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Killing any animals for any reason is, well, killing, now matter how it is dressed up. But to lighten the mood here check out http://www.dmgd.org/ and see why those psychopaths really hunt….
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Hilarious.
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Sorry, I should have re-written my post. My post “hilarious” was in response to Cath’s direction to lighten the mood. I clicked the link she provided and the content was “hilarious”. Killing animals is not hilarious. I did not mean to imply that at all. My apologies to Cath, Doug and all readers.
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This man did not kill ONE lion. The press said Cecil had 5 or 6 young cubs and without his protection another male will now kill them as future competition so he killed 6 or 7 lions !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This guy knew EXACTLY what he was doing luring Cecil out of protection. He has been pictured with endangered kills like rhinos. He also was fined @ $30 grand and given 6 months probation for illegally shooting a bear in Minnesota. He knows bloody well what he is doing is illegal, killing for some kind of stupid thrill. Who even eats lions, giraffes or rhinos? How does killing an animal make you a man???? Senseless!
Just how much does a dentist make so he can shell out a $30,000 fine and over $50,000 for a lion hunt? Time for a visit from the IRS?????
This clown is TOAST! There are throngs of people picketing him in his home town and his patients are livid and now EX patients. He has received death threats. Wonder how it feels to be on the other end of a gun. Hope he finds out.
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I hope people boycott his dentistry business and drive him into bankruptcy.
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