I’d love to go hunting one day with Dr Walter Palmer the killer dentist... so I can stuff and mount him for MY office wall

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Walter Palmer, dentist, prides himself of being an 'internationally award-winning archer' 

Dr Walter Palmer is a dentist in the human happiness business.

His website, at the River Bluff Dental clinic in Minnesota, says he ‘strives to create dazzling smiles’.

For 27 years this self-anointed kindly man has showered his patients with extraordinary care and comfort, ensuring they leave his surgery immeasurably more self-confident than when they entered.

His official photograph on the website exudes almost Saintly virtue; Palmer’s own gleaming dentures shining beatifically beneath his warm, bespectacled, twinkling eyes.

But there’s another side to Dr Palmer.

A side he alludes to right at the very end of a Q&A on the same website.

‘What are you passionate about aside from dentistry?’ reads the question.

‘I am nationally and internationally award-winning archer,’ he answers, proudly, adding that he enjoys ‘staying active and observing and photographing wildlife.’

Only he doesn’t just observe or photograph the wildlife.

The ‘awards’ that Dr Palmer, 55, likes to win are the severed heads and limbs of the world’s finest animals.

The bigger the beast the better: lions, tigers, rhinos, bison, elks, anything that looks great in his snuff trophy cabinet.

Dr Palmer tours the jungles, prairies and safari parks of the world hunting his prey.

He pays a fortune for this privilege, and he absolutely loves it.

But that enthusiasm slightly spilled over on July 6, after he paid over $50,000 for the chance to hunt and kill a lion called Cecil in Zimbabwe.

Dr Palmer, 55, likes to win are the severed heads and limbs of the world’s finest animals. The bigger the beast the better: lions, tigers, rhinos, bison, elks, anything that looks great in his snuff trophy cabinet. Dr Palmer tours the jungles, prairies and safari parks of the world hunting his prey and pays a fortune for this privilege

Palmer paid over $50,000 for the chance to hunt and kill this beloved, star attraction lion called Cecil in Zimbabwe. But when he shot Cecil, he didn't die. He stumbled off wounded and bloody and no doubt in pain. Forty hours later he was shot

For Cecil isn’t just any old lion. He’s one of Africa most famous and beloved lions, the star attraction at the Hwange national park, and a YouTube sensation for tourists.

He’s renowned as a gentle giant.

Such popularity cut no ice with Dr Palmer.

He and his fellow hunters tied a dead animal to their vehicle to lure Cecil out of the park, scenting an area half a kilometre away.

Cecil took the bait and strayed outside.

Dr Palmer pounced, firing his bow-and-arrow and striking Cecil.

He’s a great shot. 

A New York Times profile of him in 2009 said he was ‘capable of skewering a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow.’

But Cecil didn’t die.

Instead, he stumbled off, wounded and bloodied, for 40 hours before Dr Palmer and his hunters finally caught up with him and shot him dead.

They then beheaded Cecil, and skinned him, before leaving his rotting carcass lying outside the park.

There was no report on whether Cecil died with a ‘dazzling smile’ on his face, but it’s probably safe to assume he didn’t.

As a result of his death though, conservation experts say it is now highly likely that all Cecil’s recently born cubs will now be killed by the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho – so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females.

Within hours of his name being revealed today, photos of Dr Palmer with his ‘trophies’ began popping up all over the internet

The cosmetic dentist gleefully cuddling myriad fabulous animals he’s just killed and mutilated. His trusty bow-and-arrows nestled against their still twitching bodies. 

Dr Palmer is wanted for questioning on suspicion of breaking two laws – deliberately luring an animal from the park to kill it, and removing the lion’s identifying collar (which should have protected Cecil from being hunted), also a breach of the rules.

He and members of his team have been charged and will appear in court next week.

Within hours of his name being revealed today, photos of Dr Palmer with his ‘trophies’ began popping up all over the internet.

The cosmetic dentist gleefully cuddling myriad fabulous animals he’s just killed and mutilated.

He’s just a smirking, vile, callous assassin with no heart, whose shameless boasting of his disgusting exploits is almost as repellent as his exploits 

His trusty bow-and-arrows nestled against their still twitching bodies.

Dr Palmer’s beatific smile ever present, those twinkling kindly eyes shining through the camera lens.

The pictures make me puke.

Dr Palmer makes me puke.

He’s just a smirking, vile, callous assassin with no heart, whose shameless boasting of his disgusting exploits is almost as repellent as the exploits themselves.

What he does isn’t ‘hunting’. It’s not a fair fight.

It’s a rich, well-armed man paying a fortune to hire a team of people to lure unsuspecting animals to their certain death. Then ripping them to pieces so their heads and horns can be retained as sickening trophies.

If convicted, Dr Palmer now faces a prison sentence, but captivity seems way too good for him.

Instead, I’d like to introduce a new sport – Big Human Hunting.

I will sell tickets for $50,000 to anyone who wants to come with me and track down fat, greedy, selfish, murderous businessmen like Dr Palmer in their natural habit.

We’d lure him out with bait - in his case I suggest the fresh blood of one of his victims would be very effective as it seems to turn him on so much – and once lured, we would all take a bow and fire a few arrows into his limbs to render him incapable of movement.

Then we’d calmly walk over, skin him alive, cut his head from his neck, and took a bunch of photos of us all grinning inanely at his quivering flesh.

This may sound harsh, but if you ask Dr Palmer, it’s really not.

Imagine we could take Dr Palmer’s head and skin and have them framed for our office walls. I’d even keep his teeth, so we could forever see his ‘dazzling smile’

Dr Walter Palmer and his River Bluff Dental clinic in Minnesota, above, say he ‘strives to create dazzling smiles’. No doubt Cecil did not die smiling

It’s just ‘the law of the jungle’ and anyway, he’s at an age now where this would be the ‘humane’ thing to do.

Like Cecil, he’s an ageing, greying creature eeking out the last quarter of his life. He’s going to die soon enough anyway, right?

Once we’d finished our jubilant paparazzi session, we would then take Dr Palmer’s head and skin and have them framed for our office walls.

A gleaming monument to our great skill and courage.

I’d even keep his teeth, so we could forever see his ‘dazzling smile’.