Trophy hunter posts photo of dead giraffe — and its heart
A trophy hunter who posted a photograph of herself holding the heart of a giraffe she had just killed has lashed out at her critics after thousands signed a petition to ban her from Facebook.
“You can’t hunt anymore because people will be triggered and mob attack you like a bunch of hyenas,” Merelize Van Der Merwe wrote in a Facebook post.
The 32-year-old mother, who runs a citrus farm in Limpopo, a northern province in South Africa, defended herself in an interview with the Mirror, saying the giraffe was old and near death. She added that hunting promotes tourism and helps conserve animals that are near extinction — a claim animal rights activists dispute. She also said her kill “created work for 11 people that day” and “a lot of meat for the locals.” She plans to use the skin of the giraffe as a rug.
In her initial Facebook post, Van Der Merwe described how she had been looking for the right giraffe to kill for more than four years and had almost “given up hope” after looking at more than 60 photos of prospective targets. She wanted to kill a male that was old enough to be near death and have beautiful black spots (they darken with age).
“What is a trophy hunter, someone who waits years for the right animal, I set out in 2016 on a quest to hunt a big black giraffe bull but none was what I was looking for,” she said in a post on Feb. 13, adding that everything changed when a friend contacted her two weeks ago.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes, BIG BLACK and OLD, so old that he was way over his time and the owner didn’t know if he will last another 3 months!!!”
She said that her husband had planned a romantic Valentine’s weekend in the Palace of Lost City hotel in Sun City, South Africa, but changed plans so Van Der Merwe could take her shot.
“My wonderful husband knew this was my dream and fully supported me,” she wrote alongside photos of her standing over a dead giraffe.
Van Der Merwe also posted a video of her shooting the giraffe in the neck from a distance and then with another shot at closer range. On Feb. 14, she shared a gruesome Valentine’s Day post.
“Ever wondered how big a giraffe’s heart is?” she wrote, alongside two photos of her holding the large organ. “I’m absolutely over the moon with my BIG valentines present!!!”
Van Der Merwe has more than 95,000 Facebook followers, but many of the thousands of responses to her posts were negative, with some people accusing her of being a sociopath.
A petition was launched to have her banned from Facebook and it had more than 7,000 signatures by Tuesday afternoon.
Van Der Merwe responded by calling her critics “small-minded” and “emotionally unstable.”
The avid hunter, who told the Mirror that she has killed as many as 500 animals, including elephants and lions, wrote on Facebook that she has received death threats, but isn’t scared and won’t let her critics deter her.
“I’ve been hearing the same old mob stories for years and yet I’m still here and still hunting,” she wrote.