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A trophy hunter has stood behind her husband’s decision to give her a $2,000 experience of shooting a giraffe as a gift and has posed with its heart for Valentine’s Day.
Merelize Van Der Merwe, from South Africa, shocked people around the world when she shared a photo of herself posing with a 17-year-old giraffe’s heart. To the terror of many, apparently, she had gunned the animal down and then cut out its heart.
She wrote a text accompanying the photo, thanking her husband for the opportunity, and said:
‘Ever wondered how big a giraffe’s heart is? I’m absolutely over the moon with my BIG valentines present!!!’
When will this depravity end?!.https://t.co/EILN5xSA7K
— Keep The Ban (@Keeptheban_) February 21, 2021
To counter her critics, she told The Mirror she has ‘no respect’ for animal rights groups, and she even compared them to the mafia.
Merwe noted that the killing of the animal ‘created work for 11 people that day’ and provided ‘meat for the locals’.
Upholding the view of many other hunters, she says that a ban on hunting would make animals ‘worthless’ and would result in their extinction.
‘Hunting has helped bring back a lot of species from the brink of extinction,’ she said, pointing to the belief that hunters provide income for conservation efforts.
But these claims have been strongly refuted by conservationist groups such as Born Free, which stated that hunting does not help conservation or local communities.
They added that hunters pay ‘large amounts of money for the privilege’ of murdering wild, trophy animals, which has incentivized a hunting business model.
Animals that are bred specifically for hunting are ‘to the detriment of the wider environment’, Born Free stressed.
“Trophy hunting is a cruel throwback to a colonial past, and the targeting of particular animals (usually those with the most impressive traits such as the biggest tusks or the darkest manes) disrupts animal societies and has knock-on effects for populations and ecosystems that we are only just beginning to understand,’ the organization added.
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