Veteran big-game hunter is crushed by shot elephant. Karma in nature.

A lot of people are very pleased about the untimely death of a big game hunter when an elephant fell on top of him and crushed him to death. The back story is interesting. There was a group of individuals on a hunting safari in Africa. This happens a lot and far too often. They wandered into a breeding herd of elephants according to The Telegraph newspaper.

Three elephant cows charged the hunters. The man in the photograph below (who was killed), Theunis Botha, was leading the group. He tried to shoot the elephants. To try and stop him a fourth elephant cow charged at him from the side. This elephant lifted Botha with their trunk. One of the other trophy hunters then shot this elephant with Botha held up in their trunk. This caused the elephant to drop Botha. The elephant then collapsed from the gunshot and rolled on top of him, killing him.

Both the elephant and the trophy hunter were killed in this incident. It is an example of karma however. In fact, Botha runs a big-game safari business which he started in the early 1980s. He opened his first hunting ranch with his wife. At the time of his killing by this elephant, he owned private hunting ranches in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia. He was a passionate professional hunter giving his clients "a unique [and] exciting African safari experience".

Image: Twitter

Image: Twitter

Image: Twitter

Unlike him, elephants have the capacity to be compassionate. You don't have to go far to find research studies on the sentience of elephants and how they behave empathetically towards others and recognise and respond to another elephant's pain or discomfort. Often, they make heroic efforts to assist one another.

It is only humans who take pleasure in killing animals for no good reason and for the fun of it. This attitude is completely alien to other animals. I'm referring to the human as the human-animal in that sentence.

The reaction on the Internet is interesting. A large number of people would agree with what I'm saying here. One commentator said that "the failure to use the word 'murder' for nonhuman animals ignores their [elephants] cognitive and emotional lives and capacities. And that trophy hunting is voluntary and intentional and "there is no reason to engage in it. It is a form of 'thrill killing'."

"Hostility and the need for power and control are associated with poor attitudes towards animals, especially in men, according to research".

It is difficult for many people to understand how sport and trophy hunters can enjoy killing animals for fun. Many people are baffled and sickened by it. 

The top 2 pictures above on this page express their thoughts. These ghastly people defend themselves by saying that they aid in the conservation of the animals that they are killing. That also has completely baffled me.

Killing animals to protect and preserve them seems to be turning the world upside down. And don't tell me they only kill old animals and therefore it is justified. They only kill animals for the fun of it. Let's be honest about it.

This site is about cats. This page in indirectly about cats: lions, tiger, and other cat species shot for the hell of it by these AHs. May they end in hell. May Botha never rest in peace in hell.

Botha kills a leopard. Image: Twitter.