By Andrea Peyser
August 7, 2015 | 2:32am
We live in a nation of bloodthirsty hypocrites.
I admit that I share in the sense of revulsion that has gripped many of my fellow Americans, not all vegetarians, who cried out after news broke that dweeby 55-year-old Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer last month traveled to the African nation of Zimbabwe and murdered Cecil, a famous and beloved lion, in an illegal hunt.
“Is it that difficult for you to get an erection that you need to kill things?’’ late-night TV show host Jimmy Kimmel asked on air, tearing up theatrically — and playing the upsetting slaying of a 13-year-old lion for laughs. Actress Mia Farrow led the Internet equivalent of a pitchfork-and-torch charge by tweeting out (then deleting) the tooth man’s business address.
Palmer has soared to the top of the most-reviled humans list, a slot that, one would think, should be occupied by a human-child-killer rather than a lion-killer. But the king of the jungle benefits roaringly from a superior public-relations strategy. Now Palmer is the hunted, living in hiding, his practice closed. He’s forced to hire ex-cops to protect his Florida vacation house
from vandals who’ve spray-painted the words “LION Killer!’’ on the garage door and dumped pickled pigs’ feet in the driveway.
Do the severe punishments — probable financial ruin, effective exile from society, and Zimbabwean officials’ attempts to extradite him for criminal prosecution — fit the offense?
Sure — if you believe that all living beings, from furry critters to the despicable dentist — have the absolute right to live long and comfortable lives.
But how many of us eat meat, despite the well-documented animal-suffering in slaughterhouses? How many of us wear leather shoes, jackets and belts? How many of us have hunted deer? (Well, not me, but . . . )
The man dug his own hole, as for eating creatures that may or may not be abused most of us never see the actual harm.