The controversial hunter who paid £35,000 to kill Cecil the lion has been flooded with hateful messages on Facebook calling him “evil”.
Walter Palmer, a dentist from Minneapolis, was yesterday identified as the hunter who paid thousands of pounds earlier this month to have the much-loved animal killed in Zimbabwe.
Authorities there believe the 13-year-old animal was lured from a protected area to be killed.
He was found beheaded and skinned near the Hwange National Park, where he was popular with tourists and local residents.
In a statement, Mr Palmer said he did not know that the lion he took was a local favourite and part of a study “until the end of the hunt”.
A Facebook page for his dental practice, River Bluff Dental, was removed yesterday after users inundated it with comments condemning his part in the hunt.
One included: “Nothing in this world would give me greater pleasure than to see your head mounted on a wall, your carcass defiled, degraded and paraded as you did to Cecil and near countless other animals.”
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But a number of parody Facebook accounts have been created in the last 24 hours for people disgusted by Mr Palmer’s actions to have their say.
One page included comments telling the 55-year-old to “rot in hell” and branded him “evil”.
Such posts now appear to have been removed.
Just love this photo #CecilTheLion pic.twitter.com/KQCAymxBea
— Graham Applin (@SkepticalHusky) July 29, 2015
Other comments on the page asked Mr Palmer: “How would you like having strangers invade your house and shooting your family for sport or trophy” and “how can it make your life better to kill what's beautiful in the world”.
Another user warned: “The lion's 40 hours of misery are going to seem like a blink of an eye compared with your next few years."
“This is totally vile and disgusting. These people need to be hunted down and shot like they do to these endangered animals,” added another.
Many users referred to their “hope there is Karma”.
Twitter has also been awash with people venting their fury and upset at Mr Palmer.
Comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted "I'm struggling to imagine anything more beautiful than this" alongside a photo of Cecil.
While Sharon Osborne wrote: "I hope that #WalterPalmer loses his home, his practice & his money. He has already lost his soul."
Outraged Cecil defenders even made their views clearly known on the business page for the River Bluff Dental practice on Yelp.
Users have aired their anger with Walter Palmer on his company's Yelp page
Its page has amassed more than 5,000 one-star ratings from users telling Mr Palmer he has “singlehandedly ruined [his] own business”.
“Can’t get the horrible taste of slaughtered endangered lion out of my mouth,” another ‘reviewer’ added.
The married father-of-two is now understood to be in hiding.
He could not be reached at his two listed addresses or his dental practice yesterday.
Zimbabwean police said they are searching for Mr Palmer in relation to Cecil’s death.
It is believed he and his accomplice lured Cecil out of the protection of the national park using bait and shot him with the bow.
The arrow did not kill the lion immediately and he was then followed for 40 hours before being shot dead with a rifle.
Here's the hunters who shot #CecilTheLion with a bow and arrow, in case you fancy pinning their faces to a dartboard. pic.twitter.com/AlfLppnEYg
— Parker. (@jamesparrrker) July 29, 2015
The Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association confirmed in a Facebook post last week that the hunter in charge of the safari was one of its members and had been suspended.
The lion’s death has outraged animal conservationists across the globe and an investigation has been called for by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to see whether Palmer violated any laws.
A petition calling on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to stop the issuing of hunting permits for the country’s endangered animals has attracted 250,000 signatures from people around the world.
