Dr. Walter Palmer, Prince Among Hunters

Dr. Walter Palmer (left)

Heavy

A dentist from Minnesota is accused of paying $55,000 to hunt down and kill a famed lion in Zimbabwe.

“Cecil the Lion” was killed in early July, authorities said. A spokesman for the dentist, Dr. Walter Palmer, told The Guardian that Palmer, 55, may have shot the lion.

“What he’ll tell you is that he had the proper legal permits and he had hired several professional guides, so he’s not denying that he may be the person who shot this lion. He is a big-game hunter; he hunts the world over,” Palmer’s spokesman told The Guardian in a statement.

A professional hunter and the land owner where the lion was killed have already been criminally charged. Police said they are looking for Palmer.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. The Lion Was Left Skinned & Headless on the Outskirts of the National Park

2. The Hunters Allegedly Tried to Destroy Cecil’s Collar to Hide the Evidence

3. He Faced Prison Time in 2008 for Lying to a Federal Agent About the Killing of a Bear

Dead Deer Hunters in Ohio

Local news reports

Monday's accidental shooting of a 26-year-old Adamsville hunter was the state's first hunting fatality of the weeklong deer-gun season.

There have been six fatal shootings of Ohio hunters since the 2013 deer season began. All have been deemed accidental, and half occurred in Muskingum and Coshocton counties, according to Ohio Department of Natural Resources data.

Adam Shinn's death marks the third area hunting fatality in just over a year. It follows the deaths of a 63-year-old Coshocton County man who accidentally shot himself while maneuvering into a tree stand on his property last December and a 63-year-old Zanesville man who was riding his all-terrain vehicle last October when his shotgun discharged, authorities reported.

Shinn was reportedly shot in the chest by a member of his own hunting party behind his family's farm at 5475 French Road, said Bethany McCorkle, ODNR spokeswoman. Officials are investigating the shooting as "an extremely unfortunate accident" with no malicious intent, McCorkle said. No further details have been released.

Shinn was taken to Genesis Good Samaritan Hospital but later died of his injuries.

The five Ohio deer hunters killed during last year's deer season were the first killed since 2009, according to ODNR data. Although fatalities are relatively rare, local hunting accidents are more common, Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said.

A Hunter Explains

Ammoland

These big bucks are smart, darn smart. I am pitting my mind as a human against the best of the species. This chess game is addicting. It is the ultimate way to stay in touch with our primal senses. I am connected to the pulse of life and understand just how quickly life can be taken.

Fewer Young People are Hunting

Forbes

There are myriad reasons hunting advocates give for the decline: growing urbanization that puts more kids out-of-touch with the land; landowners’ increasing unwillingness to let hunters onto their property; an inability to compete with video games, cell phones and other accoutrements of modern life; and increasingly busier activities schedules that take free time from kids — and parents — that could be used to hunt. The result, according to a report released by multiple hunting organizations, has been that there aren’t enough young hunters to replace the current population of adults. (Biggest surprise to me was the state that had the lowest replacement rate: Michigan.)

There’s been no lack of effort in trying to attract youths to hunting. Hunting organizations have been successful in lobbying state legislatures to reduce the minimum age a child can go with a licensed adult on a hunt; at least 30 have done so, including the unexpectedly woebegone hunting state of Michigan. Many states also have programs that allow youth hunters to start their season ahead of schedule, when wildlife would be at its most plentiful. Yet the declines remain unabated.

It seems to me there is one factor being left out in the discussion as to why fewer youths are hunting — the current American gun culture. In my lifetime — I’m 44 years old — gun culture has turned from the hunters I see on my Facebook feed to the Second Amendment, stand-your-ground absoluteness I think many more of us also see on our Facebook feed.

Actually, the turnaround in gun culture, based on these numbers from Pew Research Center, has happened in the lifetimes of my 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter:

About half (48%) of gun owners said the main reason they owned a gun was for protection, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February 2013. About three-in-ten (32%) said they owned a gun for hunting. That was a turnaround from 1999 when 49% said they owned a gun for hunting and 26% said they had a gun for protection in an ABC News/Washington Post poll. 

5-Day-old Indiana Baby Struck by Stray Hunter's Bullet - It Was Just a Tragic Accident - No One is Responsible

Hunting from a Tree Stand - Is that Sick or What?

Guns dot com has all the gory details.