Hunter’s Wife Latest Internet Mob Target (#CecilTheLion)
Media has forgotten the lion attack on “Game of Thrones” editor already
As the Internet Mob rages against the American dentist who killed the famed lion, Cecil, there is a new potential target for its ire: The hunter’s “glamourous” wife.
Tonette Palmer was formerly the vice president of a family-run import and export company although recent employment records list her as secretary for a Minneapolis real estate developer.
The mother-of-two seemingly shares her husband’s zeal for killing wildlife, with public records revealing that she has held as many as seven sport licenses entitling her to fish in Florida and hunt in Alaska.
Her husband’s numerous kills – all by bow and arrow – include a moose, a buffalo, a polar bear and a mountain lion.
Their two homes are thought to be crammed with stuffed heads and mementos from his safari slaughter spree, with more items stored in his personal office at his dental surgery in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Egads! How dare this woman have hunting licenses!
The piece goes on to reveal that the dentist, Walter Palmer, and his wife enjoy $1 million home filled with hunting trophies.
Based on this article, the media seems to be expanding its net of outrage to include Palmer’s children, too, as it describes the marriage of his daughter. Fueling the fire of environmental justice outrage that is now consuming Palmer and those close to him, the report is essentially nothing more than a caricature of a rich, selfish family completely devoid of compassion for nature.
Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of cats…of all sizes. As much as I am outraged at the alleged way that Cecil was hunted, I am more angered by the lack of media perspective.
One story that seems to have been sucked down the black hole of meme history is the fact that lions kill humans, too. It appears that the death of Katherine Chappell has been completely forgotten.
This is the horrifying moment a lioness reared up and mauled to death an American tourist after she stopped to take a photograph in a South African safari park.
Standing on its hind legs, the lioness is seen peering into the vehicle seconds before it attacked Katherine Chappell, an editor on hit TV show Game of Thrones, through the open window.
Engineer Ben Govender, 38, who was in the car behind Miss Chappell, said ‘no one could have imagined’ what would happen in the minutes after he took the extraordinary photograph.
He described the ‘terrifying’ scene as he watched the animal take its first bite out of the passenger on the back seat before retreating from the vehicle, blood dripping from its mouth and paw.
One of the rangers at the park where Chappell died indicated that tourists viewed their facility as Africa’s equivalent of “Disneyland”. And while Lion Park has enhanced its precautions, it is apparent that the attitude that lions are just bigger versions of cute and cuddly house-cats is entrenched.
This viewpoint has real world consequences in America, too. For example, California banned mountain lion hunting through a voter initiative, and as described in a book that tackles this topic (“The Beast in the Garden”), these big cats are becoming habituated to humans with clearly foreseeable consequences.
A 6-year-old boy is in fair condition after surviving a mountain lion attack on Sunday.
The family was on a hiking trail near the Picchetti Winery in Cupertino, Calif., when the lion grabbed the child.
“He was basically somewhat dragged through part of the brush,” Fish and Wildlife Warden Travis Jarrett told KRON-4. “Multiple family members then came to his aid, fought off the attacking mountain lion, then the boy was basically transferred to a local medical facility.”
As a side note, a mountain lion was recently seen strolling through a shopping center that I sometimes use. Truly, this is not the type of cougar normally seen in southern California malls!
Bureaucrats in many Western states have been hampered in attempts to cull mountain lions that have hunted pets and livestock and are losing their fear of humans to the point that we are now prey. Despite the fact citizen hunters have volunteered to remove rogue animals threatening the safety of children, hikers, and taxpayers, it appears that those in charge of our parks are much more fearful of environmental activists.
Given the level of outrage directed at Palmer and his family, I suspect that the numbers of those willing to hunt lions, mountain lions, and other big cats will be substantially reduced in the future. Who wants to be burned at the stake of Internet Mob Justice?
This over-reaction will have an array of unintended consequences that will adversely effect Americans, Africans, and the big cats as well. The dentist’s wife is not the last sacrificial victim.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
The point is that lions are indeed larger versions of housecats. I love my cats, but I have watched them hunt and seen what they do with their prey before they eat it.
A wise man once said. “It is good for cats that they are fuzzy and make a pleasing sound, for if they were scaly and hissed we would recognize them for the vicious little devils that they are.”
“I have watched them hunt and seen what they do with their prey before they eat it.”
You can’t really judge wild animals by the behavior of domesticated animals. Domestic cats are very cruel to their prey. But it isn’t some sadistic pleasure that drives them to do that. It is instinct that compels them to hunt, but the hunt isn’t quick or painless because they’ve lost their natural hunting ability.
Wild animals like lions don’t have the luxury to ‘play’ with food. Hunting takes too much energy and effort. They try to kill as quickly as possible and reserve as much energy as possible. House cats don’t need to do that.
In what crevice of your mind did you conjure up that load of bullcrap…don’t mix human ideologies with animal behavior.
There is nothing quick about an animal kill and it is not pretty. The fantasy you describe is an old myth told by those who wished to to make humans seem more cruel than animals. Animals are vicious killers, and it is not quick. Educate yourself.
I take it that you have not lived on a farm, in an area with many wild animals, and have very little, if any, experience hunting predators.
Predators often start eating their prey before the prey is dead.
“. . . the dentist, Walter Palmer, and his wife enjoy $1 million home filled with hunting trophies.”
Dentists’ greed: wonder no longer why root canals and caps are soooooooo expensive.
I think most the outrage is not that these animals are hunted, but rather the reason they are hunted. Its one thing to hunt for food, even if the hunt itself is somewhat of a sport. Its another thing to kill a sentient creature solely for the purpose of having a trophy to mount on a wall.
The case with Chappell is totally different than the Cecil case. Chappell, unfortunately, did a stupid thing. She rolled her window down for a better look despite warnings all over the preserve not to do that.
Humans have more responsibility in interactions between animals and humans, simply because humans are more
It is absurd to compare the two, just as it is absurd to compare the killing of Cecil with the atrocities Planned Parenthood is committing.
The fact the media uses one to diminish the other is an issue against the media, not a real measure of how each case stands up to each other. Good people can be outraged by both.
whoops, started to add:
Humans have more responsibility in interactions between animals and humans, simply because humans are more intelligent and capable of reasoning. Animals depend on instinct.
Respect for “sentient” life implies a religious/moral framework. The concept of “sentience” or “feeling” is constructed from observation and its significance is derived from faith. The exceptional value of life is determined by two criteria: religion/morality and correlation (i.e. similarity). In the scientific domain, intrinsic value is not established by “sentience”, but rather through equilibrium (e.g. conservation, stability). And then not by individual diversity, but by class diversity.
That said, it’s ironic that #CecilTheLion people are hunting other people, and that the same are overwhelmingly in favor of poaching human life in a refuge (i.e. womb).
Ignorance.
It is the money from trophy hunting and safari tourism that pays the few rangers and game wardens that patrol the preserves. Without that, poachers would rule without interruption.
And lions kill villagers all the time, not a peep from all you “humane” nuts. Elephants trample the crops and homes of sustenance farmers, putting children at risk of starvation. Not a peep – but if someone shows up with an ivory chess set, you go berserk over its provenance.
– –
Screw the ignorant anti-hunting crowd. Throw them to the lions, I say, they may sing a different tune. Or just keep quiet, which would be okay, too.
Bovine scatology. The park that runs thru Philadelphia is overrun with starving deer because dogooders can’t stand to see bambi on a roasting spit. The natural predator of a deer these days is a Chevrolet.
“One of the rangers at the park where Chappell died indicated that tourists viewed their facility as Africa’s equivalent of “Disneyland”. And while Lion Park has enhanced its precautions, it is apparent that the attitude that lions are just bigger versions of cute and cuddly house-cats is entrenched.”
Overheard conversation at ‘Africa’s equivalent of Disneyland’ shortly after the incident…
John Hammond: All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but, John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.
That “video” is kind of weird. It’s a 50-second powerpoint slideshow given the click-baity title “Moment Lion Killed Katherine Chappell in South African Safari Park,” but all it is is an annoying robot voice reading a news blurb, and various random still photos, including one (one) of the lion looking into the car before anything happened. Anybody looking for a video of The Moment A Lion Killed Katherine Chappell In A South African Safari Park would have been sorely disappointed.
At first I misread the chyron and thought it was from USA Today, and was surprised that they’d put out such a cheesy piece of work, but then I saw that it was “USA News Today”, some outfit with only 451 followers whose sole schtick seems to be putting still photos into a powerpoint-type slideshow and having a robot “read” news blurbs from real news outlets (in the lion “video”, that’s text lifted directly from a Daily Mail story they’re having their robot read – I think the photos are lifted from there as well).
And no, I don’t have any comment about your actual post 🙂
No offense, I’m just “over” all this silly Cecil outrage.
The ranches are raising enough to “sell” 1000 a year, just in S Africa. And as groovy as Americans might think it is to have them “born free”, many villagers may want to keep their cattle, and their children.
I’ve had people at my place from other states to hunt deer, and they get a real thrill out of shooting a nice ten point. But we are getting more bobcats now, and they get up to four feet. Some are a little nervous about having small kids playing too far out. I guess we could advocate for more cougars here as well, but I don’t want to need a gun just to walk in the woods.
The CECIL law restricting lion head import will mostly hurt the countries that manage the hunts. But the left smells the raw emotion … never let a “crisis” go to waste … make another law, ban guns, despise all hunters. sheesh …
forgot my link again
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2015/0730/Cecil-the-lion-How-big-a-business-is-big-game-hunting-video
“Standing on its hind legs, the lioness is seen peering into the vehicle seconds before it attacked Katherine Chappell, an editor on hit TV show Game of Thrones, through the open window.”
Everybody’s a critic… Damn.
In fairness, we have no idea what she said to the lioness.
From the cat’s POV, she may have deserved it.
In any event, I feel certain there is some mention by the guides at the start that one ought not roll down one’s windows. Of course, the fact that such a warning is necessary at all is a powerful indictment of the education system.
This brutal murder just illustrates the need to ban arrows! sarc
Frankly, as Americans grow more urbanized and technologized, they are losing touch with nature.
Not in the hippy sense, mind you – in the sense of realizing that nature is cruel, merciless, and doesn’t give a damn what people think.
I’ve talked to ranchers in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, and they all share one thing in common – loss of livestock and livelihood to predators.
One sheep rancher outside Yellowstone had confirmed by Federal investigators some 160 sheep lost to wolves in a single year. The rancher put the number closer to 300, but 160 is what investigators would sign off for.
Predators are dangerous. Lions, mountain lions, wolves – they’re not elegant, majestic creatures. They’re killers.
There is suppose to be a fund that the government will pay out to cover the costs from losses I guess. I read the turn around time for payments is so long its not worth it. So the ‘official’ kills are much lower than what they really are.
Whoever decided reintroducing wolves to the wild was a good idea should have been shot at the time.
The compensation program is a joke, which is why ranchers shoot wolves when they can and bury the evidence. Horrible laws make criminals of honest men.
People who get the warm fuzzies thinking about wild animals imagine all of nature as being some garden of Eden. They forget about survival of the fittest – nature is brutal and savage. And “back to nature” Mother Jones types are some of the worst freaks pushing this stuff.
Frankly, any idiot that thinks he can commune with nature by cuddling the lions, or bears (like that one hippie wannabe in Alaska a few years back), or any other man-eating beast has lost touch with reality, and deserves all the Darwin awards coming his way ~
It takes a special kind of stupid to stop your car next to a lion and roll down the window.
She may have mistaken it for a Mercury Cougar.
maybe she thought it was another actor.
and why does the term cougar come to mind now ??
She probably mistook it for another Obama supporter.
A friend of my brother raised an African male from a cub until about 14 months in Chicago on the southeast side near 72nd and Jeffery. I first met the thing when it was about 3 months old. It was munching on a beef backbone about 5 feet long. I thought “nice kitty kitty” and I playfully pulled the bone away from him. He reached his front paw out and seemed to click his claws exposed and grabbed the bone and with one paw pulled the bone and me back to him. I couldn’t stop him. I’m like “uh ho”. At about 41/2 months we visited it again. It jumped on my girlfriends back, one claw into her breast and her whole neck was in her mouth. She tried to fall but the lion kept shifting his balance preventing her from falling. As Charlie was telling Oscar to get down off her I had my 9 mm k up against its ear, but I wasn’t sure that dinky bullet would have much effect even if I emptied it into its head.
Charlie and his girlfriend lived in the third floor attic of his dead mother’s house and Oscar lived in the basement. On the first and second floors he rented bedrooms cheaply to a bunch of hippies. I suppose he thought Oscar would eat through the hippies before he got to him, but he did keep two big magnum pistols on each floor.
At the age of nine months Oscar developed a form of epilepsy and Charlie had to wrestle him down twice a day to give him shots of phenobarbitol. He started to make arrangements to ship him off to a place in California that rescues big cats. It took several months. Meanwhile he decides to take Oscar for a walk in his changing neighborhood. People freaked and called the cops. As the police were banging on the front door, Charlie and Oscar were beating it out the back alley in his van. Charlie worked for a vet hospital and he got permission to keep Oscar there until he could be rescued. A couple of months later I stopped in to the vet’s to get some medical supplies like sutures, needles, scalpels antibiotics and such we used to treat gunshot wounds when possible and other injuries where going to the hospital would attract police attention.(I belong to a large bike club) Anyway, I walk in and Charlie is at the front desk dealing with a very old woman with an equally ancient little lap dog. She was having her dog put to sleep, but didn’t want the remains for burial. She gave Charlie the dog, signed the papers and left. Charlie says to me “Hey Fab. Watch this”. I went in back with him and the little dog whose name was “Poopsie” He walked over to Oscar’s cage and threw Poopsie in. Oscar looked at him for a second and swung his front paw so hard that Poopsie bounced off three walls. Instantly dead and eaten in less than a minute, bones and all. Charlie said it saved on food. Oscar ate 25 to 30 pounds a day and you don’t dare not feed him. He said it saved the vet some hauling expenses. Even I was a little unnerved. I took my little box of supplies and left. That was the last I saw of Oscar. He did make it to California and lived about five more years, eventually dying of a seizure.
“Meanwhile he decides to take Oscar for a walk in his changing neighborhood.”
Good grief. Did this guy ever get a clue?
If a person really wants to do some big game hunting in the US against a beast that isn’t easy to kill, is mean, and tends to live in challenging terrain go for feral pigs.
I know people who do it in the bluff country along the Mississippi in Wisconsin and its a work out. With the thick brush and trees you have to be careful the pig doesn’t get at you first.
Nice thing is that there is open season 365 with no limits. All you need is a small game license and permission from the land owner. The land owners don’t even need that.
Best management practice for feral swine is to kill them all. They mess up everything, and hunting isn’t enough to control them. Fortunately they are ugly so animal rights nuts won’t have trouble coping with life, when they find out they are being mercilessly murdered.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Feral+pig+night+shoot&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=E24C74DE86D2B15C7214E24C74DE86D2B15C7214
Come on down! Bring your night-vision rig. OR you can shoot them from helicopters!
That looks like fun. We fortunately don’t have them here, or only in a few counties at least. I only know what I just looked up on Bing, but it seems the corral traps let you catch a dozen at a time.
This is a video shows how to catch the whole group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q4PyRsYY-8
We hunt boars in NC. Some of us also hunt bores.
Leave Milhouse aloooone!
Apparently feral pigs are a big problem in Texas. A couple years ago, while at a technology conference for work, I spent an evening at a table with a Texan who told me about pig hunting down there. He was floored that people from South Dakota would trade pheasant hunts in SD for pig hunts in TX, mostly because for him, pig hunting was no big deal.
Personally, I’d love to do a feral pig hunt. Haven’t had a chance yet, though.
A wild pig will charge you in a heartbeat. The terrain is such here in NC that one can be upon you before you can get draw a bead.
That typo is because at first I was going to say “before you can get your weapon up.” I’d have never heard the end of that with this bunch.
When they start messing with the wife and kids ( even if they are grown up), it’s gone way too far.
They’re no better than a pack of ravenous wolves and they need to be put down, with prejudice. Lawsuits and prison. If it was my wife and kids that they were doing this too, you better believe I’d make every single one of their lives a living hell as long as I had breath in my body.
I don’t care what this man has done or any other person that the media makes an event out of has done, bringing all of that down on that person’s family is despicable and heads should be rolling right now over it.
I am so angry over this. When did this become acceptable?
My favorite observation on the subject is that we’ve grown so removed from the reality of nature, we worry about how much ice a Polar Bear has to live on.
Just a couple of generations ago, we’d have worried about how to cook one.
The big danger with feral pigs is trichina. Probably only a very few have it, but if you get it you will have years of muscle pain from the encysted worms. Two ways to get rid of it: heat and cold. Freeze it at 0 degrees for three weeks or cook it to 140 degrees. I make over a hundred pounds of bacon every year. Normally after curing, I slow smoke it to 130 degrees. That’s standard procedure. There is an alternative method that I would use to do a belly from a feral pig. Smoke it to 150 degrees and is considered for trichina purposes to be fully cooked although it is no where near the crisp texture most bacon eaters want. Cook it some more. Remember: the worst thing you can do as a cook is to make somebody sick or give them a disease.
Trichina might come second to losing a leg.
I don’t serve my guests somebody’s leg. but it is possible without proper care to give somebody trichina.
Apparently this hunter followed all the rules/laws when hunting this lion. His problem was that he was a “pet” for the park visitors. The peta people seized on this as propaganda to attack hunting and the corrupt officials in Zimbabwe see dollars and an opportunity to humiliate the evil whites.
But…but….but…..the dentist’s wife is a Democrat and Obama supporter……..