Free Republic

Frank Arnal Baker was simply a man returning to his St. Paul home after a day at work. Suddenly, he was surrounded by St. Paul police officers. A police dog bit his leg, holding on for 70 seconds and inflicting permanent injuries. Another officer delivered three kicks to the 53-year-old’s ribs, and he was hospitalized for two weeks with his lungs collapsed and ribs broken. Officers said Baker matched a report of a male with a gun in the area on the city’s East Side and, because they said he wasn’t complying with their orders, they feared he was armed....

On July 1, 2015, American dentist Walter Palmer shot Cecil, the African lion, a popular attraction in Zimbabwe. The killing of Cecil immediately sparked international rage. Politicians and celebrities raised their voices protesting this crime against animal life. Our government’s Fish and Wildlife Service not only expressed deep concern for the killing of Cecil, but also launched an investigation to see if any laws were broken. One Zimbabwe official has called for Palmer’s extradition to Zimbabwe to make him accountable for the death of the lion. On July 13, 2015, the Center for Medical Progress began releasing videos of the...

The American dentist who sparked worldwide outrage in July when he killed Cecil — Zimbabwe’s most beloved lion — will not be charged with any crime because the hunt was perfectly legal, authorities said Monday. Walter Palmer, 55, had “all (his) papers in order” when he tracked the rare black-maned big cat and took him down with a bow and arrow just outside Hwange National Park in the Western part of the African country, according to Reuters. Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri told local media that Zimbabwean authorities had conducted an investigation in part with the Prosecutor General, which concluded that...

The US dentist whose killing of Cecil the lion fuelled a global backlash has emerged for an interview and says he will return to work on Tuesday. Walter Palmer has disputed some accounts of the hunt, expressed agitation at the animosity directed at those close to him and says he will be back at work within days. Palmer, who has spent more than a month out of sight after becoming the target of protests and threats, intends to return to his suburban Minneapolis dental practice on Tuesday. In an interview on Sunday conducted jointly by The Associated Press and the...

~~Heroic Safari guide mauled to death by charging lion as he protected his guests in the same Zimbabwean park where Cecil was illegally hunted~~ A Safari guide has been mauled to death and hailed a hero as he tried to protect his group from a charging lion. Quinn Swales was killed by the big cat in the same Zimbabwean park where Cecil the lion was illegally hunted by an American dentist last month. The 40-year-old was tracking lions with a tour party during a dawn safari when they were suddenly targeted by the large male. According to statement from the...

Every once in a while, common sense finds its way onto the pages of The New York Times. That was the case on Monday, when it published a piece on Cecil the lion and trophy hunting of large animals.

"There is a healthy and an unhealthy love of animals: and the nearest definition of the difference is that the unhealthy love of animals is serious. I am quite prepared to love a rhinoceros, with reasonable precautions: he is, doubtless, a delightful father to the young rhinoceroses. But I will not promise not to laugh at a rhinoceros. . . . I will not worship an animal. That is, I will not take an animal quite seriously: and I know why. Wherever there is Animal Worship there is Human Sacrifice. That is, both symbolically and literally, a real truth of...

Animal lovers should not wait for Barack Obama to avenge Cecil the Lion's death. Obama knows that it is not only the Walter Palmers of this world who get to go off on safaris Any serious attempts by the Obama administration to extradite Cecil the Lion killer Walter Palmer would be more far more laughable than laudable. When Michelle Obama took herself off on safari at the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa in June of 2011—with her personal hairdresser and makeup artist in tow—she was hunting publicity rather than big game. But Michelle went off on safari all the...

How come we never hear Peta protest against abortion? Where is Peta's protests against cruelty to unborn mammals? Particularly now. How come journalists aren't creating news and controversy for Peta vs PP?

Winston-Salem, N.C. — MY mind was absorbed by the biochemistry of gene editing when the text messages and Facebook posts distracted me. So sorry about Cecil. Did Cecil live near your place in Zimbabwe? Cecil who? I wondered. When I turned on the news and discovered that the messages were about a lion killed by an American dentist, the village boy inside me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine. My excitement was doused when I realized that the lion killer was being painted as the villain. I faced the starkest cultural contradiction I’d experienced during my...

You know what? I get it. I really do get the outrage over a Minnesota dentist’s $50,000 vanity kill of Cecil the Lion. With elaborate measures in place for his protection, the dentist finished Cecil off with a rifle after ineptly wounding him with a compound bow, which left the animal bleeding for days as the intrepid hunter and his professional guides tracked it down. Then he hacked off the beast’s head so he could take it home and mount it in his study. A fair fight, if you please! A man-versus-beast, put-your-life-on-the line, kill-or-be-killed sort of encounter with the...

With the ABC and CBS preoccupied with continuing coverage of Cecil the Lion and NBC harping on Jeb Bush’s comments about women’s health, the major broadcast networks found zero time on Tuesday night to mention the fact that arguably the most disturbing video yet in the Planned Parenthood scandal was released hours earlier by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). Despite multiple mentions on cable networks CNN, the Fox News Channel (FNC), and MSNBC, the “big three” networks reverted back to their old ways of censoring the CMP videos as they did in the case of the third video (plus...

he Empire State Building’s projection of Cecil the lion and other endangered animals is being criticized for ignoring the “Black Lives Matter” movement. Along with Cecil, whose illegal killing sparked an international uproar, a snow leopard, tigers, lemurs and various snakes, birds and sea creatures were projected onto the building using 40 projectors, CNN reported.

Amid the anti-trophy hunting hysteria sweeping certain parts of the country following the death of Cecil the Lion, Democrat senators have introduced the Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies Act.

The uproar over the killing of a lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe by an American dentist, Dr. Walter Palmer, is further proof that secular society inevitably produces moral confusion. In saying that, I do not in any way defend the killing of a protected animal. First, I do not hunt for sport (among other reasons, my religion, Judaism, opposes it). Second, if the lion suffered for a prolonged period, that would add to my condemnation. Third, if Palmer knowingly killed a protected animal, he should be prosecuted. Having said that, most of the reactions to what he did are more...

“American, single-handedly, saves 600 African antelopes and 12 baby elephants — by killing a lion.” As you read the first part of the previous sentence, you most likely are thinking “this is a good guy.” But when you read the last part of the sentence — particularly if you are a cat lover — you may be thinking “this is a bad guy.” Adult lions on average eat about 15 pounds of meat a day. In the wild, they feed primarily on medium-size animals, such as antelopes and occasional baby elephants. The late Cecil the lion, killed by the American...

Cape Town - As if the death of Cecil the Lion wasn't bad enough, at least 12 of his cubs are now in danger of being killed by his rivals. NBC News reports that conservation experts who had been tracking Cecil for seven years said that the patriarch's death would no doubt result in a catastrophic cascade of effects, as a new leader of another pride will move in to take over his pride. Johnny Rodrigues from the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force told The Guardian that Jericho, the next lion in the hierarchy, will most likely kill all of Cecil's...

...The dentist, Walter Palmer, has been in hiding since word of the kill was reported in the media last week. Nugent, appearing Sunday on "The Rita Cosby Show" on WABC in New York, said he is dubious of media reports that the lion was lured out of a sanctuary because of the number of untrue statements the media has made about him in the past. If he could talk to Palmer, Nugent said, "I would say I'm sorry that our society has become so dumbed down and so soul-less, as to threaten you and your family's lives, because you killed...

Despite the possibility that talking to Cecil would unveil clues about his death, the animal did not offer an explanation. ... Cecil supposedly told Anderson, who specializes in speaking to clients' deceased pets and charges $75 for a fifteen minute session with up to two animals, that he is now 'finer than ever'. He apparently said he is 'grander than before as no one can take our purity, our truth or our soul'. 'Be strong and speak for all the others who suffer needlessly to satisfy human greed. Bring Light and Love and we will rise above this'.

Janesville — A Wisconsin dentist is dealing with angry phone calls because he has the same last name as the Minnesota dentist accused of killing a protected lion in Zimbabwe. Mathew Palmer of Janesville says he has received about 30 calls since Tuesday night, when officials in Zimbabwe identified a Minnesota dentist — Walter Palmer — as the American hunter who killed the lion.