Revealed, hot-shot lawyer’s life as a big game trophy hunter
IN a glowing CV outlining her route to a coveted role at a top dispute resolution firm, Abigail Day lists her many successes and pursuits.
As well as boasting of her Cambridge education, she highlights work in international law, banking and property.
However there is one role she has carefully chosen to omit – being one of the world’s top trophy hunters. Miss Day is accused of killing more than 200 animals for sport, including endangered lions and elephants. She is one of only two Britons known to have won the Safari Club International’s ‘African Big 5’ award, for shooting a lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and Cape buffalo.
The lawyer founded the London chapter of the American organisation and in 2008 won its ‘Diana’ award for the world’s top female trophy hunter. Miss Day will feature in a book – Trophy Leaks: Top Hunters and Industry Secrets Revealed – released today by Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting.
Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Goncalves said: ‘There is no other Briton so deeply enmeshed in the global industry. To see her list of awards was extraordinary.’
Miss Day declined to comment when approached by the newspaper at her home in west London. However the busts of two oryx antelope were said to be on the walls of her front room, alongside warthog heads flanking a mirror. On the mantelpiece was a stuffed big cat, believed to be a leopard.
A Thames Water worker from Slough in Berkshire has also been exposed in the book for travelling around the world to kill animals for sport. Asif Wattoo, who works as a customer service manager, regularly posts images to Facebook posing with his rifle beside dead animals.
A source close to Thames Water said t he company abhors trophy hunting.
Last night Mr Goncalves told the Mail: ‘When I came across these people i t was quite horrifying. Trophy hunting is something which most people find disgusting but it tends to be reported as Americans doing it. The idea that people in Britain are doing this and shooting some of the most loved and endangered wildlife on the planet is horrifying.’
Miss Day and Mr Wattoo were approached for comment.