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Campaign Against Canned Hunting (CACH)

Lifestyle of a killer dentist

8/19/2015

25 Comments

 
Picture
On his Minnesota land, lion hunter is tough on suspected poachers
by Jennifer Bjorhus, 
Star Tribune

Long before he was accused of poaching an African lion named Cecil, Walter Palmer was stalking suspected poachers on his private hunting land in northwestern Minnesota.

The Twin Cities dentist guarded his acreage and property lines so fiercely he alienated and even frightened local hunters, some Clay County residents and officials said. Run-ins with Palmer became the stuff of local hunting lore, said Clay County Commissioner Jenny Mongeau, whose district includes Palmer’s land.

“You don’t go close to it because he would report you,” said Mongeau. “He has zero positive relations with any of the neighbors, which is very uncommon for this area.”

A global furor erupted after news broke that Palmer, a veteran big-game hunter, had killed the famous research lion in a nighttime hunt in Zimbabwe in early July, maiming him with a compound bow and then finishing him off hours later. The lion was baited and the hunt was conducted on private land where, some authorities have said, there was no permit to kill a lion.

Despite accusations against Palmer, only the professional hunter he hired, Theo Bronkhorst, has been charged in Zimbabwe.

Palmer, 55, has not responded to multiple phone calls from the Star Tribune in the past two weeks, including requests for comment on this article. Vilified by animal welfare activists and the target of vitriol in social media, Palmer and his wife have not been staying at their Eden Prairie home or at their vacation home in Florida. Palmer’s dental practice in Bloomington remains shuttered.

In his one statement to the media last month, Palmer expressed deep regret for killing the lion but denied knowingly breaking any laws, saying he “relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt.”

Palmer’s Minnesota hunting refuge lies between the town of Barnesville and Pelican Rapids, about 45 minutes southeast of Fargo-Moorhead. Locals talk with envy about the nearly 900-acre spread of rolling hills, oak woodlands and small lakes. It’s some of the most pristine countryside in the area, they say.

“That’s his own personal little hunting refuge,” said Shawn Olson, head of the Barnesville Rod & Gun Club. Olson said he’s heard all the stories about territorial disputes but hasn’t experienced any himself.

Palmer lives in Eden Prairie. Property records show he bought the core 520 acres in Clay County in 1999, and then added adjacent parcels over the years. He also owns another 230 acres on nearby Pelican Lake, in Otter Tail County.

Jason Stetz recalled the first time he met Palmer. Stetz, who owns Heart O’ Lakes Quality Meats in Pelican Rapids, said he’d been out hunting, and was driving down the gravel road by Palmer’s land when an odd deer appeared just off the road. Stetz said he pulled over and grabbed his binoculars thinking: “That’s the ugliest damn deer I ever saw.”

The deer was fake, plastic.

Something slapped Stetz’s pickup, startling him. It was Palmer. He was angry.

“You were going to shoot that deer,” Stetz recalled him saying. Stetz said he just had his binoculars out to look but Palmer insisted that Stetz was going to shoot the deer.

Palmer said he was going to call the game warden and told Stetz to get out of there.

Over the years Stetz and his friends and relatives would wrangle with Palmer over property lines, deer stands and trails of deer blood. Palmer was always quick to accuse them of trespassing, Stetz said. Once, Stetz said, Palmer scared him while he was hunting when Palmer popped out of the trees in camouflage with a digital camera, snapping photos of Stetz.

As he told the British tabloid Daily Mail, Stetz recalled Palmer once kicked his cousin Keith Stetz out of a deer stand, accusing him of hunting on his land. Stetz said Palmer had a handgun. When Keith climbed down, Stetz said he recalled Palmer telling him: “There is no excuse for ignorance.”

Keith Stetz did not respond to messages seeking comment.

None of the confrontations over Palmer’s boundaries resulted in violations, according to Lt. Phil Seefeldt, a DNR conservation officer who covered the area. Seefeldt said that the hunting disputes around Palmer’s land are “kind of an ongoing issue.”

Despite the friction, Stetz said Palmer invited neighbors to a party on the property around 2008. Stetz said not many people went, but he drove over. When he arrived, Palmer invited him into an old white schoolhouse near the old farmhouse on the land. Stetz peered in.

“I was like, Holy [expletive]!” Stetz said.

The schoolhouse was a museum, chock-full of mounted animals, he said, mostly head mounts on the walls. He said he recalls seeing deer heads, and “big game” type animals, but he can’t recall exactly what kind. Stetz said the collection might disturb someone not familiar with hunting, but that he considered it “neater than hell.”

“That’s his shrine. That’s his baby right there,” Stetz said.

Stetz said relations with Palmer have improved in recent years and that, at least with him, Palmer seems to have “come around.” Stetz butchers some of Palmer’s deer for him. Palmer, he said, always brings in the biggest bucks.

Some locals suspect Palmer and his wife may be on the secluded property now, keeping a low profile to avoid the harsh public reaction to Cecil’s killing. Stetz says he has no idea. All he knows is someone hired private security to watch the property.

25 Comments
Barbara Wayman
8/18/2015 09:11:51 pm

Shocking - and yet why should we be surprised ? This just confirms that Palmer is not firing on all cylinders. He should be stopped: hunting license revoked, all guns confiscated incl cross bow, all trophies confiscated too and extradited to Zimbabwe to face the music. Indeed ignorance is NO excuse. - This man seems to be a danger to animals and man. If this case could be made a precedent Cecil would not have died in vain

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conor
9/15/2015 07:20:55 pm

i agree

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Debbie Bise
10/21/2015 08:35:54 pm

Agree

JOHANNA JANSSEN
10/7/2015 10:25:10 am

NO, NO MERCYT FOR THIS MONSTER, HE SHOULD BE KILLED, WHICH IS A SMALL PRICE FOR ALL THE PRECIOUS AIMALS HE KILLED

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Debbie Bise
10/21/2015 08:33:50 pm

Thank you. I couldn't have said it better myself. Why isn't this coward in jail?

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Marian Medvec
1/18/2016 11:05:30 am

I agree with this comment. While it feels good to wish for his death, he is probably not firing on all cylinders and should be stopped as recommended above.

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Sandra Silvestri link
3/14/2016 04:50:52 pm

As far as being extradited to Zimbabwe, I can almost guarantee that the asshole payed his way out...They arrested him at first and was gonna charge him but for "some" strange reason, let him go saying he had the correct permits. Really?, They just let the idiot go that killed off their main attraction...Guess they figured that Trophy Hunting wasn't going to bring in money like before then, why not...If his hunting guides are facing charges then he should too. I believe that Palmer has been to Zimbabwe enough times to know he was very close to the reserve in which Cecil was protected. I recently read that it was Jericho who reached the carcass before Cecil, but they waited for Cecil for about an hour before the killing.

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Flavia
8/19/2015 07:31:49 pm

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Kenneth Polk
8/20/2015 04:09:11 pm

"Neat as hell" ???! What kind of sickos are these people? I am so discouraged with the human race right now. Trophy hunting is a disgusting ugly bloody hell and it needs to be banned.

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Brian OShea
8/23/2015 03:58:48 am

Please Help Stop eBay From Selling Lion Hunting Trophies! #RoarForCecil https://www.change.org/p/devin-wenig-ebay-stop-facilitating-the-sale-of-lion-hunting-trophies-on-ebay?utm_source=guides&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition_created

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Mike Etlicher
8/30/2015 01:07:17 pm

As the layers are peeled back, Palmer is confirmed more and more to be the douch-bag we all thought he was.

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conor
9/15/2015 07:17:37 pm

my uncle is a dentist and he has a huge property. the difference is my uncle isn't a psycho deranged maniac

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conor
9/16/2015 05:47:33 pm

by the way my uncle is not Palmer!!!!!!!

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Debbie Bise
10/21/2015 08:55:08 pm

Palmer is evil an should be in jail for killing Cecil and all the other animals. Watch out Palmer, what goes around comes around.👹👣🐾🔥🐾⚡️

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deborah russo
10/24/2015 03:35:50 pm

I think palmers head should be mounted on a wall!!!

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conor
11/17/2015 05:40:03 pm

zryb

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JOHANNA JANSSEN
1/19/2016 07:26:33 am

I just found a message, saying that I do not want to receive any other messages on this subject. THAT IS OUTRIGHT A LIE. I DO WANT TO RECEIVE ALL MESSAGES ON THIS SUBJECT !!!!!!!!!

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Chris Mercer
1/19/2016 09:27:11 am

Hmnn...none of us sent the message you..maybe a hack

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johanna janssen
3/15/2016 10:25:30 am

The hunt for this lunatic killing coward Walter Palmer is not over YET ! He will either be killed by a stray bullit, or he will end up in a madhouse, as he is a really twisted to the bone monster .

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Clark Drew
7/14/2016 04:10:58 pm

Walter Palmer is scum.

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Georgie
4/25/2017 12:08:02 am

Hi:
I just heard that the government of Australia is going to ban all wildlife Trophy into their country. This is the opportunity for all of us who WANT CANNED HUNT to STOP we a STRONG FORCE to get it DONE. The government mentioned they CANNOT stop what goes on in Africa but they can Stop the hunters trophy from being delivered back home to the hunter.........So we all have FACEBOOK today, and we can BOYCOTT UPS, which is the parcel company that Humane Society International say to complain to.
We can use Facebook and spread and get everyone to spread and sign a petition to CEO of UPS that we WILL BOYCOTT their FREIGHT SERVICE until they BAN deliver of wildlife trophy from Africa. We will take our business to FED EX.
If anyone can help , please contact me. We are at the JUNCTION if we mobilize and organize we can WIN THIS WAR against the CANNED trophy hunters...........the opportunity is NOW .

thanks

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Georgie
4/25/2017 12:12:18 am

oh
forgot to mentioned also............My best friend back in Califonia was a hunter too......deer. It appeared they learned that as a child.
But my warning is this.......I learned that YOUR DENTAL FILLINGs
contain MERCURY.........and it is leaking all the time.
I heard from a couple of MD, that they founded that 96% of their CANCER PATIENTS(breast cancer ) has a dental problem........and it caused by the mercury in the fillings or the root canal that full of bacteria..............so, they" killing us" also.

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Su
8/16/2017 07:11:28 am

They allowed Palmer to remove Cecil carcass?? And bring him home to join the rest of his grisly sick trophy collection????

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johanna janssen
8/16/2017 09:05:57 am

Again I received a message that I wanted to unsupscribe on this . matter.....NOT TRUE.. I want all the news concerning about the killer Walter Palmer and waiting eagerly to hear about his end

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Chris Mercer
8/16/2017 11:42:30 pm

Sorry Johanna I do not know why you get an unsubscribe message. Please ignore that.
No charges were ever brought against Palmer or the pro hunter who organised it all. Zimbabwe legal system is dysfunctional.

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