I suspect money spent in Africa is somewhat wasted. There seems to be enough corruption that folks would take the money for natural habitat and still lead hunting expeditions.

From what I understand, I had a great grandfather that lost a hand and wrist by holding a gun like that.

To me they are just a couple of wimps, send them to a war zone where the targets shoot back, I bet they would be the first to run away crying.

As a hunter I cringe reading these trophy hunting "stories". While I do think these things are happening and I do not condone them, we have to take it with a grain of salt. Much of this is promoted by anti hunting groups that would not just like to have elephants protected rather than any type of hunting become illegal. Including upland hunting, waterfowl hunting, deer hunting etc. It is a form of "divide and conquer" and I don't appreciate it at all. If you look at PETA's agenda, they don't even want you to keep a pet by the time they are done.

my neighbor is an obsessive big game hunter. he spent last year on the skeleton coast in namibia.

getting his trophies back is always a hassle. he goes to great lengths to get every bit of paperwork sorted. about ten years ago another hunter needed his help. he was missing a stamp and wanted to include one of his animals in my neighbors ship,emt. he stressed that this was all entirely legal, just some bureaucrat shuffling.

weeks later he's at the customs warehouse in anchorage watching his stuff get unloaded. only there's one unfamiliar crate about 3ft X 3ft X 10ft.

they crack it open and find a giraffe head. he still takes **** about that from his buddies.

You and I don't agree on much, but this ... yeah.
Sometimes you have to/need to kill an animal. I would have blown away the weasels that killed my chickens without a second thought. The snakes in my ceiling - no hesitation.
Other times it's harder.

They killed Dumbo....

Sad