Death Of Cecil The Lion Exposes More Parks Where Trophy Hunters Pay In Thousands To Kill ‘Big’ Animals

Hundreds of British hunters are fuelling a grisly industry
of trophy animal killing, it was revealed yesterday. The trophy hunters travel
the world on shooting safaris, which can cost £30,000 per person, to hunt
species including lions, leopards and cheetahs.

Outrage over the American dentist who paid to shoot Cecil
the lion in Zimbabwe has thrown a spotlight on the legal trophy hunting
industry in countries including South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. Several
British firms offer the trips and advertise price lists of animals to kill,
alongside macabre picture galleries of their grinning clients posing next to
bloodied animal corpses.

British hunting enthusiast Adrian Sailor advertises trips to
South Africa and Namibia offering hunting enthusiasts the chance to kill big
game. And a £29,000 expedition offered by British firm Shavesgreen Safaris, run
by hunting enthusiast Charly Green, is described as ‘the ultimate dangerous
game safari’.

The company’s website says: ‘Lion, leopard, buffalo,
elephant, hippo and crocodile are all on the priority list.’ The firm, based in
Lyndhurst in Hampshire, also offers a 16-day lion hunt in Tanzania with the
boast: ‘There’s only one priority – a grand, old, maned lion.’

Two men shake hands over the body of a lion. So-called
trophy hunters travel the world on shooting safaris, which can cost £30,000 per
person, to hunt species including lions, leopards and cheetahs