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September 9, 2015

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Cecil the lion鈥檚 US killer returns to work

The Minnesota dentist who killed Cecil the lion returned to work yesterday after weeks away, walking silently past a swarm of media and a few of protesters outside his dental clinic calling for him to be sent to Zimbabwe to face trial.

A security guard met Walter Palmer in the parking lot of the Bloomington clinic as he walked from a street where police had blocked off traffic, whisking him inside past a barrage of reporters shouting questions.

Palmer announced on Sunday in an interview 鈥 his first since the uproar broke over Cecil鈥檚 killing during a hunt in Zimbabwe鈥檚 vast Hwange National Park in July 鈥 that he would return to work, saying his patients and staff need him.

The small throng of protesters gathered near the clinic didn鈥檛 match the furor in the days after Palmer was named as Cecil鈥檚 killer, when hundreds held vigil for the big cat with the black mane and forced River Bluff Dental to shut temporarily.

Just a few protesters were on site when the dentist appeared shortly after 7am. Cathy Pierce kept yelling 鈥淓xtradite Palmer!鈥 as he entered the clinic.

Pierce said she drove more than an hour from her home in East Bethel to the Bloomington clinic to 鈥渇ight for animals who can鈥檛 fight for themselves.鈥

She scoffed at Palmer鈥檚 suggestion in his interview that protesters had unfairly targeted his staff and family, in some cases threatening violence.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not picking on his staff or his family. We鈥檙e picking on him. We want him to know that we鈥檙e not going to forget.鈥

But while Palmer鈥檚 guides on the hunt have either been charged or await charges for their involvement in Cecil鈥檚 killing, the Zimbabwean government鈥檚 pursuit of the dentist has cooled off amid fears it could hamper a hunting industry that is lucrative for the country.


 

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