Voortrekker (“Pioneer”) is arguably the world’s most photographed and famous living elephant. Thousands of tourists would go to Namibia to see the massive elephant with its signature perfect ears and profile. One tourist however came not just to admire but to kill the famous elephant. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) agreed to allow the unnamed trophy hunter to shoot Pioneer for N$120 000. It was not hard. Pioneer was famous in part because of his gentle and friendly demeanor. It was like shooting a couch, but someone can now claim to have killed the most famous elephant in the world. The rest of us can look at pictures.
In order to grab the money, MET declared Pioneer a “problem elephant” despite letters from local groups that the claims of crossing into communities were false. That did not matter. Someone wanted a thrill kill and Namibian officials wanted the money.
As regulars on this blog know, I am no fan of such trophy hunts. I often hike in remote spots to see bears and other animals in their natural habitat. We have previously followed the controversy over the shooting of “Cecil the Lion” by an American dentist Walter Palmer from Minnesota as well as subsequent controversies of an Idaho hunter taunting animal advocates and killing giant elephants or giraffes or rare goats or famed wolves for trophies. Recently, we discussed how the highly corrupt Zambian government to allow trophy hunters to kill thousands of hippos, including rare and threatens species for windfall payments.
I will again express my confusion on why there is such a thrill to these kills for trophy hunters. I am not sure of the trophy that is commonly obtained from a hippo. However, shooting a hippo with a high-powered rifle is about as challenging shooting cars in the airport parking lot. Yet, thrilled hunters are shown posing with the dead animals like they have achieved something truly grand in the killing such animals.
We previously wrote about the disturbing pictures of trophy hunter Tess Thompson Talley posing with her giant dead giraffe like it was some great feat to shoot a giraffe standing still eating leaves. She told “CBS This Morning” “ I am proud of that giraffe.” She said that she had his skin made into a gun case that “everybody loves” as well as a couple decorative pillows. She added “He was delicious. He really was. Not only was he beautiful and majestic, he was good.”
Yup, I saw a beautiful and majestic giant giraffe so I killed it and turned it into decorative pillows and a gun case. As a lifelong outdoorsman, I cannot get my mind around that logic.