There are some people in the world who are just disgusting. One of them is Walter James Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota who doubles as a big-game hunter in his spare time. Palmer was in the news this week after it was revealed that he paid upwards of $50,000 for the right to shoot and kill a beloved lion named Cecil who resided in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park.
FROM EARLIER: Windows 10: The 5 best new features
What makes this story so gross isn’t just that he paid to kill the lion. Instead, it’s that he and two locals he hired lured the lion out of the park so he wouldn’t violate Zimbabwean laws against shooting animals within Hwange. Then Palmer fired at the lion with an arrow that hit, but did not kill, Cecil. The lion temporarily escaped but was found wounded by hunters in the park the next day who proceeded to kill, skin and behead the creature on Palmer’s behalf.
Being the tough, manly man that he is, Palmer placed blame for the lion’s death completely on the people he hired rather than on himself.
“I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt,” he explained, per The Telegraph. “I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt.”
What a stand up guy!
Jimmy Kimmel took some well-deserved shots at Palmer during his monologue last night and questioned why Palmer felt the need to kill a lion in the first place.
“Is it that difficult for you to get an erection that you need to kill things?” an incredulous Kimmel asked. “If that’s the case, they have a pill for it that works great. Just stay home and swallow it and you save yourself a lifetime of being the most hated man in America who never advertised Jello pudding on television.”
Check out the whole video below.
