Dentist Who Killed Zimbabwean Lion Returns To Work

 The Minnesota dentist who killed Zimbabwean lion Cecil, sparking a global outcry from animal lovers, returned to work on Tuesday to shouts of "murderer" and "leave town" from a half dozen protesters, but support from some patients at his suburban Minneapolis office.

Walter Palmer, 55, did not speak to reporters as he entered his Bloomington, Minnesota, dental practice. He shut the practice in late July amid a firestorm of protests after he was publicly identified as the hunter who killed the rare black-maned lion weeks before.

The death of Cecil, a familiar sight at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, triggered threats on social media, stoked controversy over big-game hunting and prompted three U.S. airlines to ban transport of African big game killed by trophy hunters.

Zimbabwe's environment minister said in July the country was seeking Palmer's extradition as a "foreign poacher." But Palmer would have to be charged before he could be extradited and Zimbabwe has not done this.

The River Bluff Dental practice reopened in mid-August without Palmer, who said on Sunday in a joint interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Associated Press that he needed to resume his duties.

Veronique Lamb, a 49-year-old tourist from Brussels, was among a handful of protesters waiting for him on Tuesday. She said she was there to protest the dentist returning to work "like nothing happened."

"He did something really bad and he really knows it," Lamb said. "Hopefully this has opened the eyes of people to this horrible business. It's very sad."

Palmer was also greeted with support.

A patient of his, Ryan Rice, said as he left a dental appointment that he was heartbroken for Palmer. A St. Paul resident and hunter, Rice said money paid for hunting licenses often goes to conservation efforts.
"I have no problem with him taking a lion or giraffe, that's his own business," said Rice, 30. "I do have a problem with social media and how people have tried to slander this individual."

In the interview on Sunday, Palmer reiterated a statement he had made in July: that the hunt was legal and no one in the hunting party realized the targeted trophy kill was the well-known 13-year-old lion.

Regulated big-game hunting is permitted in Zimbabwe and a string of other African countries.