A smiling Walter Palmer, hunter who killed lion, back at work as dentist

MINNEAPOLIS Dr. Walter Palmer, the big-game hunter who set off a global firestorm by killing a beloved African lion with a bow and arrow, returned to work Tuesday morning at his Twin Cities dental practice for the first time in six weeks and was greeted outside by a few protesters and many members of the news media.

Palmer’s revelation Sunday night that he was resuming practice at his Bloomington, Minn., office set protesters scrambling to make their presence known to the veteran hunter who has been under intense scrutiny since he killed Cecil, a much-beloved lion in Zimbabwe, this summer.

With a modest police presence nearby, Palmer, 55, parked across the street at a gas station and strode toward his office as his adversaries and news media converged.

Dressed in a black polo shirt and dark pants, Palmer smiled, said nothing and entered the River Bluff Dental building as a private security man held the front door for him. A bit later, security escorted the day’s first patient back to his vehicle.

Palmer has been away from his practice and in something just short of hiding since late July, when a London newspaper revealed that the Eden Prairie, Minn., husband and father killed Cecil in what authorities have alleged was an illegal hunt a few weeks earlier with a guide and another local in his party.

A neighbor argued with protesters Tuesday morning that it’s time to leave Palmer alone.

“They want the guy dead; they want his business dead,” Stephanie Michaelis said to the dentist’s assembled critics. “They want him extradited and hung. I’ve seen the signs; I’ve seen the rhetoric. I’m tired of it. ... What do we have to do with a lion in Africa?”

Protester Brenda Spencer countered that it was Palmer “who created the firestorm. Palmer and other trophy hunters have called themselves conservationists, which is far from the truth. ... The world’s eyes are watching.”

Cathy Pierce brought her 3-year-old Alaskan malamute, Shanook, along, explaining that she was there “to stick up for animals that can’t stick up for themselves. We need more people to realize our animals are going extinct. ... If I was a patient of his, I would be gone.”

Police had said Sunday night that they had no plans for officers to pay any special attention to Palmer’s River Bluff Dental office, however a small police presence was there as employees, protesters, news reporters and daybreak and then Palmer arrived. The department has been maintaining an outside surveillance camera in the area.

“Hopefully, this will die out and we can move on,” Deputy Police Chief Mike Hartley said Tuesday morning. “We had to shut down Rhode Island to accommodate the media trucks.

Hartley had little trouble determining that there were 10 protesters on hand as of 8 a.m., one with a bullhorn and other with signs. A few paper strips about the size of fortune cookie messages were attached earlier to the office’s front door with expressions of displeasure over Palmer and his actions as an accomplished and veteran trophy hunter.

Palmer broke his silence Sunday evening in an interview with the Star Tribune and the Associated Press, reiterating that he carried out a legal hunt and that it was time for him to get back to work and resume his life as normally as possible.

Palmer has not been charged with a crime, although officials in Zimbabwe want him extradited. The two who were with him have been charged with helping Palmer take down the 13-year-old lion, whose majestic black mane made him a favorite of tourists who traveled from around the world to see him.

Dallas Rising, of Minneapolis, executive director of Animal Rights Commission, held a sign Tuesday outside the dentist’s office that read “#ExtraditePalmer”. But, Rising conceded, “It appears now (extradition) doesn’t appear very likely. ... If you have enough money and are a citizen of the United States, you can get away with anything and have absolutely no consequences.”

During the week that Palmer’s involvement in Cecil’s death made its way stateside, protesters brought their passions to Palmer’s place of work for a rally. The demonstrators expressed themselves with signs such as “Rot in Hell” and other wishes of ill for the big-game hunter. Moms brought their little ones, some decked out in lion costumes.

The dental practice was shut down amid all the commotion, later reopening but with Palmer still absent.

When not protesting in person, critics took their points of view to social media. Some argued the propriety of big-game trophy hunting while others tapped out not-so-veiled threats against Palmer and his family. The heated online entries forced the practice to shut down its social media and business Web pages.

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