Sunday, 21 May 2017

Hunter dies after shot elephant falls on him

quote [ A professional big game hunter from Tzaneen has died during a hunt in Gwai, in Zimbabwe, when a member of his group fired at a storming elephant cow and the animal fell on him. ]
[SFW] [obituaries] [+10 Good]
[by XregnaR@3:12pmGMT]

Comments

Bleb said @ 7:45pm GMT on 21st May [Score:1 laz0r]
One Bothan died to bring us this information.
NuncEstBibendum said @ 8:30pm GMT on 21st May [Score:1 Underrated]
After having seen the repellent trophy gallery from his personal website, I must say
—as much as it could sound like random internet hatred, unbecoming of SE—
I'm warmly, cozily glad he's gone.
lilmookieesquire said @ 4:38pm GMT on 21st May
That is a horrible way to die. That said, karma.
Bob Denver said[1] @ 9:21pm GMT on 21st May
Perhaps even more so. P.W. Botha was the man who jailed Mandela and who was a staunch defender of apartheid. I wonder if this thing was a relative.
slaytanik said @ 3:52am GMT on 22nd May [Score:1 Informative]
Doubt it, Botha is a very common surname here
backSLIDER said @ 5:03pm GMT on 21st May
I feel for his family but I'm glad I don't know him because I am kind of laughing my ass off.
Bob Denver said @ 7:22pm GMT on 21st May [Score:2]
I feel for the elephant's family. She was defending, the hunter was playing.
foobar said @ 7:57pm GMT on 21st May
Don't worry, it sounds like he killed them too.
foobar said @ 6:18pm GMT on 21st May
I don't, really. They knew what he did.
Ankylosaur said @ 6:26pm GMT on 21st May
They must have at least suspected what with all the elephant steaks they've been subsisting on.
midden said[2] @ 6:43pm GMT on 21st May
Wife made a choice, kids, siblings, parents, not so much.

(Speaking as a guy with a father that used to be a lobbyist for the Catholic Church.)
foobar said[1] @ 6:59pm GMT on 21st May
If they're small children, sure, they're not really going to understand, but he's 51. His children are likely grown and know he kills what are, by any reasonable definition, people.
midden said @ 7:01pm GMT on 21st May
What does their age have to do with it? You don't get to choose your parents, or get to choose if you love them or not.
foobar said @ 7:57pm GMT on 21st May
The former, sure, but I don't follow you on the latter.
midden said @ 9:16pm GMT on 21st May
Maybe I'm not following your point, either. What I meanis that even grown children who know their parents do something or used to do something of which they deeply disapprove generally still love their parents. Losing a parent to an early, violent death is very difficult for those children, even when they know and understand what their parents have done. I don't see what the children's age or level of understanding has to do with being sympathetic to someone who has just lost their parent.
foobar said @ 1:55am GMT on 22nd May
There's a bit of a difference between "something they deeply disapprove of" and mass slaughter. At what point do you just cut ties with someone?
midden said @ 2:23am GMT on 22nd May [Score:1 Original]
I don't know. As I mentioned in a previous comment, my father was a professional lobbyist for the Catholic Church, pushing legislation that I believe violated what should be fundamental human rights. I think that's horrible, and in different circumstances would not choose to associate with someone who did that. But the fact is, he's my dad. He loves me, helped raise me, and is responsible for a lot of who and what I am today. He has many qualities I respect and admire, along with others I do not. I couldn't choose to stop loving him and cut all ties any more than I could choose to believe in his god.
foobar said @ 2:57am GMT on 22nd May
I can certainly see agreeing to disagree with someone like that.
Bob Denver said[1] @ 3:32am GMT on 22nd May
I appreciate what you're saying, Midden. I'm not certain but I believe that people who proselytise tend to do so with the best intentions—saving immortal souls etc. Those who argue for the greater institutions view themselves as "doing the Lord's work" on a grander scale. Your filial love for your father transcends any perceived general harm to humanity as a whole. But, what would happen if your father had been worse and had physically harmed or killed other people? There are those who believe(and I am one) that we share this planet with other species and that we have an obligation, as the technological leaders, to not cause distress or harm for amusement or trivial purpose.

That Botha made a living from that activity makes him reprehensible in my books and I won't mourn his loss. One day, there will be no more elephants nor leopards and his descendants will have to deal with the fact that it was their father or grandfather was partially but directly responsible for those species' extinction. They will have to deal with the same dichotomy that many children deal with—that their parent was both loving and a monster.
Dienes said @ 3:42am GMT on 22nd May
Sometimes saying "What you are doing is reprehensible and hurts not only your own children, but countless others, and I can't associate with you while you do this." is the only leverage children have to make their parents consider that you don't have to be a massive fucking asshole that hurts other people.
arrowhen said @ 10:35pm GMT on 21st May
Statistically speaking, they're probably assholes too.
foobar said @ 1:56am GMT on 22nd May [Score:1 Underrated]
Well, that's true of everyone.
spazm said @ 5:59pm GMT on 21st May
Too bad the elephant didn't survive either.
mechanical contrivance said @ 1:29pm GMT on 22nd May
Why was he standing under the elephant when he shot it? Dummy.
Bob Denver said @ 5:27pm GMT on 22nd May
What might be true is that the elephants recognised him and understood the threat he represented. He was attacked and raised into the air. I'm also forced to wonder...how far could the elephant have thrown him? Could she have done a nice tight spiral, straight into the trunk of a baobab tree? (sorry)

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