Warning: the images in this post may be distressing.
What do you do when you have lots of money and a desire to be a tough guy? You pay the Hunting Legends company tens of thousands of dollars to go on a ‘safari’ in Africa where you hunt and kill wild animals in an enclosed space. Animals like giraffes. And Elephants.
There is a market for this among rich white men and it is repugnant.
The Trump brothers disagree. Thirty-four-year-old Donald Junior and 28-year-old Eric are the sons of US billionaire Donald Trump and this is what they got up to on their recent Hunting Legends trip in Zimbabwe.
The pictures were posted on the website of the company that ran the trip, Hunting Collections. -brothers
This is from the Daily Mail, who first reported the story when the images were posted on the website of the hunting company who organised this and other trips for the Trump brothers:
The company, called Hunting Legends, detailed the brother’s trip and said that it was not the first time that the Manhattan real estate moguls arranged a trip with them.
Though the pricing for the trip is not publicly available, it was certainly a costly endeavor.
The 2012 trophy fees for each of the animals they shot, and for the deer-like animal called the Kudu they paid at least $2,795.00 and another $1,997.00 for the Waterbuck they were pictured with.
‘The Trump’s soon showed their metal and it was evident from the word go that these two amazing young men are everything but the “city slickers” you would expect!’ the Hunting Legends site reads.
‘They meant business from the outset of the hunt.’
The tour guide went on to say that they had ‘the precision of a true marksman’.
The brothers justified their actions. On Twitter, Donald Trump Jr said the pictures were: “Not a PR move I didn’t give the pics but I have no shame about them either. I HUNT & EAT game”.
They argued that their actions were justified because they gave the meat to local villagers. “I can assure you it was not wasteful the villagers were so happy for the meat which they don’t often get to eat. Very grateful,” he tweeted to a user.
Oh hello, rich white man mentality. Yuk.
Here’s what their father, Donald Trump, had to say about his sons’ adventures.
Your thoughts?
Comments
129 Comments so far
How timely is this report
http://www.economist.com/node/21549969
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Total imbeciles!
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While I have a lot of issues with the Trumps’ “hunting holiday”, what scares me the most is the amount of people who have the money and the minds who’ll rush to “enjoy” the same “adventure” now that they’ve seen all of the media coverage this is generating.
I’ve heard of parks that allow hunters to instead use tranquilizer darts to “shoot” the animals, take photos with them, and then -hopefully- recover and get on with their lives.
I wish these idiots had done that.
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These photos were taken over a year ago. This site is getting slower and slower at publishing news and current affairs
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Hey anon, we try to cover what everyone’s talking about. The photos have been big in the media this week (and that’s the first I’ve seen of them) – so here we are!
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Hi Lucy, I really appreciated the article however I’m concerned with mention of rich white men, are rich black or Asian men not interested or don’t participate? I’m a little concerned if it was the other way around everyone would be up in arms? Maybe I’m reading this incorrectly?
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Hey Laura – my edit actually. Fair point. But I couldn’t see any images on their site other than white men….
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Wouldn’t it take more skill to shoot a flying duck than a leopard/buffalo/crocodile?
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Not if you use birdshot…
Any idiot can hit a bird with birdshot – it’s lots of little pellets that explode outwards.
However, getting a kill-shot using a solid or hollow-point round on an animal with a tough hide and a larger, stronger skeleton is a LOT harder.
Look at it this way… if you’re trying to defend yourself against a wild boar you want to hope that you can either nail a kill-shot first time OR have enough time to empty your ENTIRE CLIP (10 rounds) into it because unless you hit the small square inch point in the middle of their heads, they WILL kill you.
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Disclaimer:
While, yes, my partner & I hunt, it is only for over-populated animals to fill our freezer to feed ourselves. It is not “for the fun of it”.
I AM NOT AGREEING WITH WHAT THESE BOYS DID – I THINK THE UNNECESSARY SLAUGHTER OF ANIMALS FOR FUN IS DISGUSTING, POINTLESS AND IMMORAL.
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Well, I hope you guys aren’t eating steak for dinner tonight, then…
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Killing an animal just because you get pleasure out of killing is not the same as eating meat.
Saying they are the same is just one way of minimising the harm of the other.
Having said that, I also have strong opinions on killing animals for meat, but I do believe the two situations are VERY different
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cattle aren’t endangered.
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It’s an interesting argument. Do meat-eaters have the right to be outraged at this kind of thing? Yes you can argue that cattle aren’t endangered and that’s fair if your only problem with this story is that the animals were endangered. But I don’t think it makes much sense to call it cruel or disgusting or whatever if you eat meat. The way animals die in abattoirs is absolutely horrific, far worse than how these animals would have died (and I’m not talking about just the dodgy Indonesian abattoirs, I’m talking about any abattoir).
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You’ve got to be kidding Noelle? I think it’s safe to say that the Trump boys didn’t kill these animals for food.
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But no human needs to kill animals for food. Why does it make it more ethical if you then chose to make a meal of them?There are cheaper, healthier, more sustainable options. We need to stop hiding behind comfortable half-truths and admit our part in everyday animal suffering.
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I’m not uncomfortable with the notion of killing animals for food and I enjoy eating meat. No half truths from me.
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Yes, they don’t need them for food, but (hearsay) apparently they went onto to give the local villagers the cacases after they were finished gloating over them, who surely needed the food. I’d bet they needed the meat of those animals more than you need your steak. Does that make it ok now?
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Sickening. Just sickening. I don’t care what arguments anyone Puts up to support this.
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I was just about to make the exact same comment
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speechless!!!
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Ditto
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Hmmm, I’m probably going to be going against the grain with my comment but I shall make it anyway! I’m not appalled by this story. I am an Environmental Scientist and have spent time in Kenya where I knew several professional hunters. They hunted in Tanzania and would take (mainly American) clients on hunting safaris. I’m not sure how it works in Zimbabwe (and I doubt it is as good as Tanzania) but all of the money from the trophy fees would actually go towards the running of game reserves and anti-poaching patrols. Zoologists would make quotas for each hunting concession based on ecological principles so that no species would be adversely affected. In actual fact because of human encroachment into the animal’s habitat these animals that were hunted would maybe have had to be culled anyway. The hunters would take these quotas very seriously and would not breach them. This therefore helped keep the wildlife in equilibrium with the local people, gave huge amounts of seasonal employment and boosted the economy all while raising funds that can be directed to major conservation efforts. No endangered or vulnerable species are allowed to be hunted and the animals that are killed are given to local people to eat and so are not wasted either.
Hunting may not be your ‘cup of tea’, heck it’s not mine either, but it’s actually not as bad in real life as it first seems from this news story. The sad truth is that in a lot of African countries the wildlife has to ‘pay their way’ or risk poaching for bush meat, poaching for ivory or their body parts or worse still, culling because they’re just in the way of humans. Through tourism (and yes this currently includes hunting under quota or licence) the wildlife in Africa has a higher chance of survival by conservation becoming part of the economy rather than part of people’s conscience.
The hunters that I knew were animal lovers and believe it or not conservationists at heart. There are dodgy hunting schemes out there, canned hunting is still rife I’m sure, but there are also some some responsible hunting operations in Africa.
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Fair points. And I really appreciate your comment – but what I don’t understand is how someone can be an “animal lover” and still pose with their kill like a trophy.
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Agreed, the posing is in bad taste.
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Just to add… a lot of the safaris that my hunter friends do now are actually photographic safaris rather than hunting ones. They use the same stalking techniques but shoot the animals with a camera not a gun! This would not have been the case a decade ago so the tide is turning.
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This is an interesting perspective.
I would say that Tanzania’s restrictions in their game parks in infinitely better than that in Zimbabwe.
And I would also say that these creatures are infinitely more beautiful alive and in the wild than strung up dead in happy snaps.
I agree that certain animals do sometimes need to be culled. Elephant herds, for example, can endanger other species because they can destroy habitats when the herds get too big. HOWEVER, I am sure this cannot be the case for the leopard at the very least. Leopards are generally only able to raise one cub at a time (because they cannot fight other predators so usually are only able to save one if attacked by hyenas for example). The cubs are with their mother for 2 years I think? My point is that the survival of the leopard species is in no way assisted by hunting. To say otherwise is disingenuous in the extreme.
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Bananna
I agree with you that “these creatures are infinitely more beautiful alive and in the wild than strung up dead in happy snaps.” but I think your facts are a bit mixed up when you were coming up with reasons and comparisons.
Elephants may be culled, I’m not sure, but they too also have only one baby – and that baby has a gestation period of 22 months before being milk fed by their mother for up to 6 years… sounds like a bigger job to be an elephant mum than a leopard mum
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Thanks so much for taking the time to write this comment – it opened my eyes to some things I didn’t know. I usually have only very emotional opinions on hunting (e.g. if you kill for fun, that’s pretty psycho and mean), so it is good to get some more information.
I am just wondering though, and I may be naive, but do you really think that any of the people who pay to go on these hunting tours can really be ‘animal lovers’?
I mean, maybe those people who work in the industry and see a way to conserve the animals through this kind of tourism…but the people who pay to go and kill animals for fun? Can you imagine any one of them being an animal lover?
I would like to hear about them…
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Thank you for your sensible comment. Admittedly, I find the idea of shooting a leopard and elephant confronting but you make a good point. I’d also say that we are judging the entire trip on a couple of photos. We have no way of knowing if these guys did some good while they were there. The stories I’ve read makes me think that the Trump kids are generally level headed, good people.
I’m not a fan of hunting but a lot of people are – especially men. I’m sick of men being turned into simpering shadows of their former selves so I’m going to let this one go through to the keeper after reading junosmum’s comment.
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So interesting to read your comment. I find hunting barbaric and repulsive but happy to learn there may be more to it. What really gets me though is the smug smiling photos. What I’d really like to see is these men with a live animal and no gun.
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I am actually in tears, this is disgusting. Those creatures are beautiful and these pele are fucking up the world just because they can.
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I will never understand how people get pleasure out of killing things.
these idiots weren’t killing for food – they found pleasure in the killing.
disgusting.
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“The Trump’s soon showed their metal” – oh dear.
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Well, it is from The Daily Mail….
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Bad pun is bad, Hunting Legends.
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I live in the country where some people kill just for the fun of it – I find it disgusting!!
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Disgusting. So disrespectful of life and all living creatures to humilate them after death with a happy snap.
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Louis Theroux did a documentary on this topic and I honestly don’t understand it. I get hunting as a sport, and although I don’t necessarily agree with it, i understand it.
I don’t understand this, where animals are bred for the pure enjoyment of killing for some people. To me it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
I doubt many people actually keep the “trophy’s” and put them up in their houses so i really don’t understand it. I think to specifically go to a safari park where this is encouraged and you pay for the pleasure is disgusting.
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Absolutely appalling
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