Elephants are remarkably intelligent and communal animals. They often exhibit the same attachments as humans to members of their herd. That attachment led to tragedy this week when most of a herd died in Thailand while trying to rescue a calf at a waterfall. This terrible loss should educate people about these animals and the savagery of hunting them. I have repeatedly denounced  killing giant elephants and other forms of trophy hunting. From the killing of Voortrekker (“Pioneer”) to countless other elephants, these magnificent animals are being killed for the vanity and thrill kill of wealthy hunters.

As many of you 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 famed wolves or mountain goats or  hundreds of hippos for trophies. We also discussed the shooting of an iconic elephant as well as  disgusting videotape has emerged of a trophy hunter shooting a sleeping lion. The latest outrage is over new pictures of English hunters posing with dead zebras. Shooting a zebra is about as challenging with a long-range rifle as shooting a neighborhood dog.

I previously warned the nation of the invasion of airborne Canadian wolves. Now, it appears that our Northern neighbor is switching back to the land attack with news of an invasion of feral pigs. They can be distinguished from our own feral pigs apparently because they are more polite and put mayo on everything.

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.

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