The “driller killer” from Minnesota who killed the beloved Cecil the lion bagged an endangered ram in Mongolia last year.
Dentist Walter Palmer, 60, forked over almost $100,000 for the pleasure of killing an endangered Altai argali — the world’s biggest ram — in Mongolia last August. The enormous sheep are considered a national treasure and, with only 19,000 left in the world, are on the endangered species list.
Coincidentally, Donald Trump Jr. caused international outrage last year for bagging a similar ram on a hunt during the same month. It is not known if the hunting parties knew each other or were hunting together in the remote region of Western Mongolia.
Fellow hunters posted photos of the dead ram — but were careful to crop out Palmer’s face in an attempt to protect the dentist who had killed the ram with a crossbow — the same method he killed Cecil the Lion with during a hunt in Zimbabwe.
“For trophy hunters to travel to Mongolia to kill a beautiful and endangered ram is an absolute outrage,” Dr Teresa Telecky, wildlife vice-president at Humane Society International, told the Daily Mirror.
“The argali ram is a species in danger of extinction, so the idea that these animals can be killed for pleasure is abhorrent. The killing of Cecil the lion five years ago caused international shock. But clearly the killing for kicks continues. It’s time for the law to stop wildlife killers in their tracks by banning trophy hunting.”
Mongolia allows trophy hunting of the animals — for a steep price.
“The right to kill an argali is controlled by an opaque permitting system that experts say is mostly based on money, connections and politics,” according to ProPublica.
Palmer is said to have traveled to Mongolia last August with his friend and fellow hunting enthusiast, Canadian Brent Sinclair.
“At the time of Cecil’s death, Walter took a back seat,” An insider told the Mirror. “But he’s been hunting ever since he was a boy. It’s a way of life to him. Walter has undertaken several hunts since Cecil’s death. … The trip to Mongolia was his idea. The ram was on his list of hunts he wanted to complete.”
Palmer’s trophy is not hanging on his wall as US customs haven’t granted him a permit for it to be exported yet from Mongolia.
Palmer doesn’t have the trophy of his other big bow hunt, Cecil, whose head and body were taken by Zimbabwe police.
“I have booked more hunting trips with this guy over the past 20 years than I can count. Together, we have travelled to many far reaches of the world,” Sinclair said of the driller killer on his Facebook page in posts now made private or deleted.
Sinclair mentioned the two killing an elephant, but said the jaunt to Mongolia was “at the top of the pinnacle and hard to beat … Thanks, Amigo (Palmer) for the adventure … look forward to our next one,” according to the Mirror.
When the Mirror caught up with Palmer to ask for comment, the dentist angrily sped off in his Porsche.
Palmer was also with Sinclair and Zimbabwean hunter Theo Bronkhorst when they illegally lured Cecil out of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe before killing the famed lion.
“Palmer, hidden in a tree, was armed with ‘lethally sharp arrows,” according to reports in the Post. After being hit with the first arrow, it is said to have taken Cecil 10 to 12 agonizing, painful hours to die.