‘SICK’ trophy hunters are just like ISIS terrorists who butcher their victims, says former Botswana president Ian Khama, who banned the sport during his tenure in office.
He says marksmen who kill elephants, lions and zebras are no different from head-chopping Islamic extremists.
‘I liken them to people who operate like ISIS terrorists because those people take a morbid delight in killing,’ he told British newspaper The Mirror in a recent interview.
‘When they stand on TV having decapitated somebody, taking great delight in having killed a fellow human being – which is of course far, far worse – but it’s the just the same kind of mentality because they also pose next to dead animals with their guns, with stupid grins on their faces as if they have done something remarkable in their life,’ he said.
Khama used a recent visit to London to throw his weight behind the Mirror-backed Campaign to Ban Trophy hunting imports.
His Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill passed its second reading in the British Parliament in November and is due back on January 25.
Khama urged MPs to continue supporting the legislation, which will become law with government help.
‘My message would be to commend them for the very responsible voting that took place recently when the Bill went through,’ he said.
‘There can be no recreational activity whereby you take delight in slaughtering a defenceless animal – animals which we know are in decline.’
Khama – who was Botswana’s President from 2008 to 2018, having been Deputy President for a decade from 2008 – was born in Chertsey, Surrey in England.
Hunters also wanted to slay the biggest, most impressive animals in a herd or pride – depriving potential tourists of the chance of seeing top examples of species in the wild and stripping the gene pool of its strongest features.
‘It’s not only that they are killing the animal, it’s the type of animal they kill because when they go there they only hunt bull elephants and those with the largest tusks … it’s the male lions with the biggest manes that are taken out, and that would disrupt the whole genetic sequence and the structure of the pride,’ he said.
‘When that animal was alive it was an attraction – now that it’s dead it’s no benefit at all to tourism.’
Blasting hunters who have returned to his country, he added: ‘It’s like they are in a race – because they know these animals are all going to be extinct one day – to try to be the one to be able to say, “Well at least in my lifetime I managed to shoot a few more animals”.
‘People like competition to see how many different species they can shoot and put it on their scorecard.
‘People like that, quite honestly, are sick.’