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Freaky Fast Outrage: Jimmy John's Owner's Alleged Trophy Hunting Photos Resurface

While Cecil the lion is mourned, photos of JJ's owner posing over elephants and rhinos continue to haunt him.

Jimmy John Liutaud
Jimmy John Liutaud
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Ashok Selvam is the editor of Eater Chicago and a native Chicagoan armed with more than two decades of award-winning journalism. Now covering the world of restaurants and food, his nut graphs are super nutty.

Internet outrage spreads freaky fast, and that's again the case with the founder of Jimmy John's. In the aftermath of Cecil the lion's slaying in Zimbabwe, social media has rediscovered those photos that allegedly show Jimmy John's owner Jimmy John Liutaud posing with dead elephants, rhinos and leopards overseas that first surfaced back in 2011.

Jonah Luptona blogger and entrepreneur, retweeted the photos to his followers on Monday morning, once again putting Liutaund in the spotlight:

Liutaud has never confirmed that's him in the pictures, although it sure looks like him. The photos were taken in places including Mongolia and South Africa.

Grub Street caught wind of Monday's retweets and reports Champaign-Urbana based Smile Politely was the first to publish the photos in 2011. Jimmy John's is still based in Champaign, despite Liutaud's threats to completely move operations to Florida after complaints that Illinois' taxes and regulations weren't conducive to run his restaurant chain. There's about 2,000 Jimmy John's across 43 states and last year came under fire for a...unique non-compete agreement they were forcing on customers.

Regardless what customers think of the food, will these photos affect sales at Jimmy John's? Sound off in the comments.