Cecil's hunter hires armed guards for Marco home

A private security agency is now protecting a Marco Island home that was vandalized after its owner drew international ire for killing a venerated lion in Zimbabwe.

A patrol officer drove by the home of Walter James Palmer, the 55-year-old Minnesota dentist who killed Cecil the lion, about 8:45 a.m. Tuesday. The officer discovered the words "LION Killer!" spray-painted on the garage door.

Police later found several pickled pigs feet scattered on the driveway.

Capt. Dave Baer, spokesman for Marco Island Police Department, said investigators are considering the two acts of vandalism separate incidents.

Palmer's family hired Global Investigative Group, a Fort Myers security and private investigations firm to protect the $1.1 million vacation house.

"People would be foolish to come by and do something with cameras and armed investigators on the property," said owner Walter Zalisko, who said someone from Minnesota representing the family contacted him before the crime.

"They had been concerned that there may have been something going on there," he said.

He wouldn't be specific about what his agency was doing to protect the home, but did say: "We have cameras installed, and we're documenting anybody who drives by the property, photographing their plates, running their plates."

Some came to show support.

Dan Politt, 16, was with his parents at the home Wednesday afternoon bleaching the bright blotches left by the pigs feet that were staining Palmer's driveway. The family wanted to paint the garage door, but officials told them it would interfere with their investigation.

Zalisko said he didn't know who Palmer was before getting hired, nor does he know where he is.

"We don't expect anything more to happen. People got it out of their system," he said. "It could have been kids and it could have been people who just like animals."

Animal rights activists say there's no way it was them.

"That is not an animal rights activist; that is some person who is misguided," said Jane Velez-Mitchell, award-winning multimedia journalist and activist.

What stands out to Velez-Mitchell most as a red flag is that no animal rights activist would use pigs feet.

"We never would have sacrificed another animal to make a point that someone was wrong," she said.

Zimbabwean officials will try to extradite Palmer, alleging he lacked authorization to lure Cecil out of the Hwange National Park and kill him July 2. Palmer has said he relied on professional guides to ensure his hunt was legal.

The United States and Zimbabwe do have an extradition treaty together. According to the treaty, an extraditable offense is anything that’s considered illegal in both countries and is punishable by more than one year in prison.

University of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit was tracking Cecil with a GPS collar, which the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said the hunters tried to destroy.

Velez-Mitchell condemns the vandalism, but doesn't pity Palmer, a "serial killer of animals."

Madeline Doran, Fort Myers animal rights activist and former educator, said this sideshow distracts from the true problem. "All that does is send a negative message and take away from the real issue," she said, "which is baiting and killing innocent animals that are protected species for the purpose of cutting its head off and hanging it on a wall."

Connect with this reporter: @ben_brasch (Twitter) and Ben Brasch - Reporter (Facebook). The USA Today and Marco Island Sun Times reporter Steve Stefanides contributed to this story.