Big Game Hunter Shot Dead as He Takes Aim at Lion

“A Croatian trophy hunter who, according to friends, had ‘hunted everything that could be hunted in Europe’ has been shot dead while taking part in a South African hunting expedition,” independent.co.uk reports. “Trophy hunter Jelinic had already shot one lion dead and had another in his sights when he was shot at a remote lodge near Setlagole.” Someone had Jelinic in his sights . . .

South African police have opened a culpable homicide (manslaughter) investigation, and are also investigating charges of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

I can almost hear the anti-hunt crowd gloating. Actually, I can read their gloats in the comments section:

The Independent article highlights the fact that the dead hunter was hunting captive-bred lions, and “according to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the number of African lions in the wild has dropped by 40 per cent in the last 30 years because of habitat loss and conflict with people.”

Those two facts are not related. Nor is this legal hunter’s death anything to celebrate, regardless of what you think about “canned hunting.” [ED: related Safari Club story to follow.]