Addicted to killing
COMMENT Sick lion killer says hunting is like ‘being hooked on heroin’
PAUL ROBERTS ON HIS BLOODTHIRSTY HOBBY
THE natural world is increasingly under threat. We are in the midst of the sixth great extinction – yet some of the planet’s most endangered animals continue to be relentlessly persecuted by trophy hunters.
This pursuit is leading to elimination for many more species. Studies show links between trophy hunting and declining animal numbers – but also how wildlife populations have recovered when local
DR JANE GOODALL,
bans are implemented. Yet exports of hunting trophies continue to increase.
All those decapitated heads displayed on walls in countless wealthy homes were individuals removed from their societies
Roberts poses with murdered antelope
Roberts and Hadoke boast about shooting down animals
ONE of Britain’s top trophy hunters has boasted how his bloodthirsty hobby is like “mainlining on heroin”.
Paul Roberts features on a list of more than 500 of the world’s most notorious hunters – seven of them British – released today in connection with a new book on the fifth anniversary of the killing of Cecil the lion by American dentist Walter Palmer.
In a video for gun fanatics Roberts told fellow hunter Diggory Hadoke that killing animals like is being “hooked” on a drug. “You don’t come off it very easily,” brags Roberts, 78, who owns J Roberts and Sons Gunmakers in West Sussex.
He gives details of his 33 African hunting trips, including one when he repeatedly shot a leopard: “It took two loads of buckshot, 3-inch magnum buckshot, a slug from a 12 bore and two .470s to stop it!”
He also told how he hunted a female elephant classed as a “problem” by villagers – but had “no idea” if he killed the right one. He said: “Our guide said we
in their prime. How can anyone be proud of killing these magnificent creatures?
When the hunter shares their joy online, surely this is the act of a diseased mind.
Rhinos are among the most endangered large mammals. As with elephants, they are also cursed with a body part of great value – their horns.
Despite their precarious status, some people are desperate to kill them, to add
just look for an elephant who fits the description because the people will be content if something is being done.”
Roberts has hunted since the 60s and his vile trophies include a lion rug, antelope horns, elephant tusks and buffaloes.
The new book Killing Game: The Extinction Industry, says 6,000 lions have been killed by hunters since Cecil in 2015.
There are estimated to just be 20,000 left and US government officials believe they could be extinct in the wild by 2050 .
Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting and the book’s author, called Roberts “a walking advert for why trophy hunting must be banned”, adding: “When is Boris Johnson going to act?”
The Mirror is campaigning to stop the importation of animal parts and trophies into the UK.
Mr Hadoke replied to an email sent to Roberts, asking for comment. He said: “Hunting dangerous animals is an exciting, honourable sport with long traditions, traceable throughout every human civilisation.”
Hunting’s like heroin, you don’t come off it very easily
them to their macabre trophy collection, to win admiration of like-minded friends.
One American recently paid £285,000 to go and shoot a black rhino in Namibia.
Polar bears are even more endangered than white rhinos – yet the Canadian government still issues licences for non-indigenous people to kill them.
The days of the “great white hunter” should be brought to a close.