San Francisco-based Yelp has removed thousands of negative comments on its listing for River Bluff Dental, the Minnesota practice owned by Dr. Walter J. Palmer, the controversial alleged killer of a media frenzy-inciting lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe.
As of this writing, there are 510 reviews on the page, with an overall average rating of one and a half stars out of five.
Many of them aren't pretty. One dated Friday read, "I took my little boy to this dentist for a routine cleaning. Instead of cleaning his teeth, the doctor lured my pet dog out of my car with treats into the back and shot him in cold blood. I guess he does good work, but only go to this dentist if you want to have your teeth cleaned by hands that are covered in blood."
On July 28, the Washington Post calculated 1,280 one-star reviews on the page, the lowest rating possible on Yelp.
But according to VentureBeat, there have been as many as 2,300 negative reviews on the page since. A representative for Yelp said in a statement to the publication that “Reviews aren’t the place for rants … that don’t address the core of the consumer experience. Our user support team ultimately removes reviews that violate these guidelines.”
