Posted on 07/29/2015 4:02:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Dr Walter Palmer is a dentist in the human happiness business.
His website, at the River Bluff Dental clinic in Minnesota, says he ‘strives to create dazzling smiles’.
For 27 years this self-anointed kindly man has showered his patients with extraordinary care and comfort, ensuring they leave his surgery immeasurably more self-confident than when they entered.
His official photograph on the website exudes almost Saintly virtue; Palmer’s own gleaming dentures shining beatifically beneath his warm, bespectacled, twinkling eyes.
But there’s another side to Dr Palmer.
A side he alludes to right at the very end of a Q&A on the same website.
‘What are you passionate about aside from dentistry?’ reads the question.
‘I am nationally and internationally award-winning archer,’ he answers, proudly, adding that he enjoys ‘staying active and observing and photographing wildlife.’
Only he doesn’t just observe or photograph the wildlife.
The ‘awards’ that Dr Palmer, 55, likes to win are the severed heads and limbs of the world’s finest animals.
The bigger the beast the better: lions, tigers, rhinos, bison, elks, anything that looks great in his snuff trophy cabinet.
Dr Palmer tours the jungles, prairies and safari parks of the world hunting his prey.
He pays a fortune for this privilege, and he absolutely loves it.
But that enthusiasm slightly spilled over on July 6, after he paid over $50,000 for the chance to hunt and kill a lion called Cecil in Zimbabwe....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Well worth the read!
IMO the cause is that media have used, and will use, their control of the public square to increase their profits.
And they make more ad revenue from ‘feminized’ consumers.
It's been a long time since I was under fifty so my opinion may be worthless to you, but for whatever my opinion might still be worth, I can tell you that there was never a time in my lifetime when what this guy did would have been considered particularly manly by normal people.
Whether what he did was legal or not is a matter for the Zimbabwe courts, should they want to consider the matter. But manly? We're all entitled to an opinion on that issue, but for the life of me, this old man can't figure out what part of all this struck you as being manly. It's just plain weird. This guy was out to trick people into thinking he was manly and I guess he succeeded with a few of you. But, most people these days aren't fooled and most people wouldn't have been fooled by this guy at any time that I've been on this planet.
Back atcha Piers
You’ve increased the population of the species as it moves from close to extinction to flourishing in these areas.... It is a win for the species. As an individual animal it passes as all animals and people do. Elephants and lions and leopards are smart. So are pigs. We harvest pigs en masse as people food. We kill cows and chickens by the millions. We consume animals. It is human to take animals.
To go after a lion with a bow is just extra cruel unless you are also prepared to track and run it down to finish it off - running full tilt into the bush to to it would have made it a lot more "sporting".
Did my share of hunting over the years and, other than youthful indiscretions such as shooting a bunch of sparrows and squirrels, never killed an animal that wasn't sick, a nuisance, or destined for the dinner table.
” I can tell you that there was never a time in my lifetime when what this guy did would have been considered particularly manly by normal people.”
I’m impressed that you feel yourself qualified to identify “normal” people as opposed to what?...abnormal? aberrant? deviant? This man!!!!! is like hundreds of those I met in twenty odd years as a taxidermist(gasp! Get your heart meds!) For millennia; yea, since time began; hunting has been a manly necessity and now has turned into a sport. But, believe it or not, there are still places on earth where hunting is still necessary to sustain life and it’s still done primarily by men. It’s a concept that would naturally escape most modern day Americans, even our overfed and privileged “poor”.
If you’ve spent your over fifty year lifetime in a place where neither men nor dogs hunt, then more power to you. I’m sure you’re overjoyed that your outlook and perspective have apparently become the norm in this nation. I only ask that you read the quote that I commented on. It’s wisdom that is unfathomable to the present generations(and to you, apparently) but no less true. Such is life and history that repeats. When the pendulum has swung back the other way; it will have to be learned all over again.
Well, things may be working out for you, but they haven't gone well for this Palmer fella. His plan was to bring home a lion's head so that some folks might be fooled into thinking that he had been out there courageously risking his life protecting the rest of us from dangerous lions and now it's all been shown to be a fraud. And, now this poor guy, who just wanted to be thought of as manly, is cowering somewhere and hiding from the press.
Well, in time, the waters will be peaceful again and Palmer will summon up the courage to come out and face the public. Please be patient with him.
You mentioned parenting and you're absolutely right about the importance of parents teaching children what it really means to be a man. Maybe some parents out there will use this sorry episode to teach their children about courage - that it can't be bought and that it involves something more than traveling first class half way around the world, renting rooms in 5 star resorts and executing defenseless animals.
Your manly-man Palmer? Well, he hasn't poked his head out yet, but he has now hired a PR firm to try to smooth the waters. Courage!
(sigh!). Protecting “us”. from lions? No dear. You’ve missed the point and effectively proved mine. Never mind.
But, we're not all taxidermists. ;-)
So Piers is back in England writing columns for the Daily Mail?
Quick, somebody put him on the no-fly list so he can’t come back!
It’s 2015, you don’t have to literally sit at a desk on Fleet Street to write for them.
Damn shame. I was hoping we got rid of him.
I bet he’s like to Stuff and Mount em!!!
Can I hunt me some elks here?
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