NRA chief draws fire for clumsy elephant hunt

MSN – AFP, 28 April 2021 

National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre. (JOE RAEDLE)

Already facing legal problems, Wayne LaPierre, the head of the US National Rifle Association, is now facing ridicule for clumsily hunting an elephant in Botswana. 

Wayne LaPierre holding a sign: National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre© JOE RAEDLE National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre

Video of the 2013 hunt was published by The New Yorker and The Trace. 

It was taken for an NRA documentary but was never aired, The New Yorker said, "because of concerns that it could turn into a public-relations fiasco." 

In the video, LaPierre wounds an elephant with his first shot. 

He then shoots it three more times at point-blank range but hits it in the wrong place. 

A hunting guide finally fires the shot that dispatches the elephant. 

The footage also shows LaPierre's wife, Susan, killing an elephant, cutting off its tail and shouting "Victory!" 

Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action, tweeted about the video. 

"CEO Wayne LaPierre manages to alienate both hunters and gun owners because not only is this inhumane, but he's a horrible shot," Watts said. 

Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was "sickening to see LaPierre's brutal, clumsy slaughter of this beautiful creature. 

"No animal should suffer like this," Sanerib said in a statement. 

"Savannah elephants were just declared endangered by international experts, and these intelligent beings certainly shouldn't be used as paper targets by an inept marksman." 

The NRA filed for bankruptcy in Texas in January of this year after being sued by the New York state attorney general, who accused its leaders of misusing funds.

Killer of Cecil the lion was dentist from Minnesota, claim Zimbabwe officials

Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force alleges trophy hunter shot one of Africa’s most famous lions near Hwange national park

The Guardian, Ashifa Kassam and Jessica Glenza, 28 July 2015

Conservationists in Zimbabwe have accused an American man of being the alleged killer of Cecil, one of Africa’s most famous lions and the star attraction at the Hwange national park.

On Tuesday, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said the man thought to have paid $50,000 (£32,000) for the chance to kill Cecil was not a Spaniard as originally believed, but US citizen Walter Palmer, from a small town near Minneapolis. The man left the lion skinned and headless on the outskirts of the park, the ZCTF’s Johnny Rodrigues said in a statement.

The hunt took place around 6 July. “They went hunting at night with a spotlight and they spotted Cecil,” Rodrigues said. “They tied a dead animal to their vehicle to lure Cecil out of the park and they scented an area about half a kilometre from the park.”

Walt Palmer, left, and one of his many trophies.

The hunter first shot at Cecil with a bow and arrow but failed to kill the lion. “They tracked him down and found him 40 hours later when they shot him with a gun,” Rodrigues said.

A spokesman for Palmer told the Guardian that the hunter was “obviously quite upset over everything”.

“As far as I understand, Walter believes that he might have shot that lion that has been referred to as Cecil,” the spokesman said. “What he’ll tell you is that he had the proper legal permits and he had hired several professional guides, so he’s not denying that he may be the person who shot this lion. He is a big-game hunter; he hunts the world over.”

On Tuesday, Palmer - a dentist and married father of two - became a target as the Facebook page of his dental clinic was flooded with angry comments and threats. An online petition demanding justice for Cecil had gathered more than 12,000 signatures.

Palmer’s love of hunting is well-documented online. In 2009, he was interviewed by the New York Times about his slaying of an elk that was touted as a kill for the archery record books.

Noting that Palmer had learned to shoot at age five and was “capable of skewering a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow,” the article said Palmer had paid $45,000 at auction to take part in the hunt, with the proceeds being used to help fund the elk habitat. As the hunting season began, Palmer was on probation for lying to authorities over the exact location where he had killed a black bear in northern Wisconsin in 2006.

A 2008 Flickr photo album by Trophy Hunt America and Porcupine Creek Outfitters, a company that leads hunting expeditions, shows Walter Palmer posing next to avariety of slain animals, including a wood bison and a lion. In another online photo Palmer and his bow and arrow sit next to a slain rhino, the captionstating that the photo was taken in South Africa.

The same company advertises trips to Africa, under the name Safari Connection. Photographs to advertise the company’s services show hunters posed next to elephants. Other expeditions show hunters posed next to polar bears amid snowy backdrops.

Two people who accompanied the hunter on his Zimbabwe trip were identified by authorities and arrested earlier this month, including Theo Bronkhorst, the founder of Bushman Safaris Zimbabwe which is believed to have organised the hunt. Both are facing poaching charges and due to appear in court in early August.

Zimbabwe National Parks confirmed the charges. “In this case, both the professional hunter and land owner had no permit or quota to justify the offtake of the lion and therefore are liable for the illegal hunt,” it said in a statement. Bronkhorst’s hunting license has been suspended and efforts were being made to interview another employee of Bushman Safaris who was believed to have also taken part in the hunt.

The 13-year-old lion was wearing a GPS collar as part of an Oxford University research project that had been running since 1999, making it possible to trace his last movements. Rodrigues said the hunters tried to destroy the collar, but failed.

Walt Palmer and a Nevada California Bighorn.

The death of Cecil comes as Zimbabwe, like many countries in Africa, attempts to crack down on illegal hunting and poaching, said Rodrigues. “This has been going on too long. Cecil is the 23 or 24th lion that has been collared and then killed in Hwange. We have to try and stop it.”

Initially his organisation had said the whereabouts of Cecil’s head was unknown, sparking concerns that it would be sent abroad as a trophy. The fear brought conservationists and politicians together this week to call on the European Union to ban the import of lion heads, paws and skins as hunters’ trophies from African countries that cannot prove their lion populations are sustainable.

On Tuesday, Rodrigues said the head of the lion had been located in Zimbabwe and had been impounded to be used as evidence in the investigation.

The ZCTF said on Tuesday that it continued to mourn Cecil. Rodrigues pointed out that the hunter was believed to have paid just $50,000 to kill a creature that would have brought millions of dollars worth of tourism to the reserve.

Conservation authorities said they were also dealing with the likely consequences of Cecil’s death for his six cubs. “The saddest part of all is that now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho, will most likely kill all Cecil’s cubs so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females.”

Cecil was a major tourist attraction at Zimbabwe's largest game reserve in

Hwange National Park, due to his distinctive black mane (AFP Photo)

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: I live in Spain. I am sorry if I will ask you a question you might have already answered, but the translations of your books are very slow and I might not have gathered all information you have already given. I am quite concerned about abandoned animals. It seems that many people buy animals for their children and as soon as they grow, they set them out somewhere. Recently I had the occasion to see a small kitten in the middle of the street. I did not immediately react, since I could have stopped and taken it, without getting out of the car. So, I went on and at the first occasion I could turn, I went back to see if I could take the kitten, but it was to late, somebody had already killed it. This happened some month ago, but I still feel very sorry for that kitten. I just would like to know, what kind of entity are these animals and how does this fit in our world. Are these entities which choose this kind of life, like we do choose our kind of Human life? I see so many abandoned animals and every time I see one, my heart aches... I would like to know more about them.

Answer: Dear one, indeed the answer has been given, but let us give it again so you all understand. Animals are here on earth for three (3) reasons.

(1) The balance of biological life. . . the circle of energy that is needed for you to exist in what you call "nature."

(2) To be harvested. Yes, it's true. Many exist for your sustenance, and this is appropriate. It is a harmony between Human and animal, and always has. Remember the buffalo that willingly came into the indigenous tribes to be sacrificed when called? These are stories that you should examine again. The inappropriateness of today's culture is how these precious creatures are treated. Did you know that if there was an honoring ceremony at their death, they would nourish you better? Did you know that there is ceremony that could benefit all of humanity in this way. Perhaps it's time you saw it.

(3) To be loved and to love. For many cultures, animals serve as surrogate children, loved and taken care of. It gives Humans a chance to show compassion when they need it, and to have unconditional love when they need it. This is extremely important to many, and provides balance and centering for many.

Do animals know all this? At a basic level, they do. Not in the way you "know," but in a cellular awareness they understand that they are here in service to planet earth. If you honor them in all three instances, then balance will be the result. Your feelings about their treatment is important. Temper your reactions with the spiritual logic of their appropriateness and their service to humanity. Honor them in all three cases.

Swedish private jet scandal claims seventh scalp

SCA loses seven executives after revelations that it used corporate planes to fly board members’ relatives to hunting lodge and sporting events

The Guardian, David Crouch in Gothenburg, 11 February 2015

Jan Johansson has stepped down from his role as chief executive
of SCA. Photograph: TT News Agency/Reuters

A corruption scandal in Sweden centred on extravagant corporate perks and private jets has now cost the jobs of seven senior executives.

Jan Johansson, chief executive of SCA, a forestry group and the world’s largest maker of incontinence products, resigned on Tuesday after coming under increasing pressure after reports that wives, children and even pets of board members had traveled on corporate jets. The flights included trips to a company hunting lodge, Formula One races, the World Cup and the Olympics. On one occasion, Svenska Dagbladet reported, a plane had flown empty from Sweden’s far north to pick up a wallet that an executive had forgotten.

The revelations have demonstrated an extravagance at the top of a country that still prides itself on egalitarian values. It has also lifted the lid on a secretive world of corporate perks in a society that has embraced globalisation but is still uncomfortable with ostentatious displays of wealth and privilege. It has sucked in one of the country’s largest investors, two large banks and accountants PwC, while attracting the attention of prosecutors and financial regulators.

Johansson is seen in business circles as a CEO who “lays golden eggs” – SCA reported record profits only last month. He resigned on Tuesday night, saying investigations into the use of corporate jets were diverting his attention from managing the company. He leaves with two years’ salary, worth 22m krona (£1.7m).

SCA’s commercial success appears to have been accompanied by an increasingly extravagant corporate culture at odds with its stated ethics. In 2013 the company said it had “zero tolerance for all forms of corruption and unethical business practices”.

Attention has focused on a hunting lodge built by the company at a cost of 100m krona (£7.7m), according to media estimates, on prime elk-hunting land in a remote and beautiful part of central Sweden. According to business daily Dagens Industri, the lodge was “worth its weight in gold” as a venue for entertaining potential business partners.

But the leader of the trade union for SCA’s employees has viewed it rather differently, comparing management’s behavior to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The company has said is considering selling the hunting lodge.

SCA also announced the resignation of its vice-president, who had come under fire for flying with his wife on a company jet, while chairman Sverker Martin-Löf resigned last month after it emerged that his son had been used as a financial adviser on business deals.

Martin-Löf was also forced to step down from all his other board positions on major Swedish companies, including the chairmanship of Industrivärden, a vast investment house that, together with the Wallenberg family, controls more than half the Stockholm stock exchange.

Industrivärden owns controlling stakes in companies such as Volvo, Ericsson and Handelsbanken, one of Sweden’s biggest banks.

In total, the four big companies implicated in the private jets scandal – SCA, Industrivärden, Handelsbanken and steel firm SSAB – have now lost their chairmen. Three of of the companies have lost their chief executives, although some have been reshuffled, rather than sacked.

The scale of the scandal has raised questions about Sweden’s distinctive model of corporate ownership, with large and active shareholders, and an emphasis on long-term investment rather than short-term share price gains. But cross-holdings between SCA and Industrivärden meant that executives were also signing off on each other’s expenses.

Sweden’s national anti-corruption unit last month began an investigation into SCA’s use of corporate jets. Sweden’s financial supervisory authority is also investigating whether the chief executive of Nordea Bank acted improperly by flying to the SCA hunting lodge. SCA banks with Nordea.

The company’s auditors, PwC, are also facing scrutiny for taking part in the hunting trips. Sweden’s accountancy association said in a statement: “It is very inappropriate that the auditor participates in an elk hunt that the client company organises and hosts.”

The behavior by SCA executives and their associates would be at the limits of corruption law in other countries, said Carl Rosen, head of Sweden’s Shareholder’s Association. He condemned an “unholy alliance” between large shareholders and company executives, insisting that companies should not be free to spend unlimited sums on corporate travel and entertainment. He added: “If the message is that you have to go to a hunting lodge in a corporate jet to do business in Sweden, that’s bad.”

Swedish steel company SSAB, whose executives also traveled on board SCA’s jets, defended the practice of inviting clients on hunting trips. “Our customer hunts are a tradition. I have chosen to continue with them,” CEO Martin Lindqvist told Swedish media this week.

Sweden’s main business daily last month called on the country’s capitalists to think about their legitimacy in the eyes of the wider population. In an editorial, Dagens Industri said: “Royalty that celebrates its privileges in unsuitable company is living dangerously, but a monarch who clearly contributes to the development of society can bridge the gap between a culture of democracy and the right to inherit the throne.”

SCA said it had now changed its policy in regards to relatives using business aviation travel, even when there is no extra cost to the company. It also said that business aviation would no longer be used for corporate hospitality.

Hunt: Fahd bin Sultan is said to

have killed 1,977 houbara 

bustards in just 21 days while

on holiday

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Pakistan prepares for Saudi royal to hunt 'protected' birds

Yahoo – AFP, 2 Feb 2015

A falcon (R) tries to catch a Houbara bustard during a falconry competition,

 part of the 2014 International Festival of Falconry, in Hameem, 150km west of

 Abu Dhabi, on December 9, 2014 (AFP Photo/Karim Sahib)

Quetta (Pakistan) (AFP) - Pakistani authorities are finalising arrangements for a Saudi prince to visit its southwestern desert region to hunt the Houbara bustard, a bird supposedly protected by law, officials said Monday.

An advance party has already been reached the Yak Much desert in the province of Baluchistan along with falcons which will be used to catch the bustard, officials said.

Saudi Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz is expected to join the group in coming days. He led a hunting party to Baluchistan last year that officials said killed more than 2,000 bustards.

The birds are listed as "vulnerable" and declining in numbers by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's "Red List" of threatened species. Hunting them is banned in Pakistan.

But authorities issue special permits to wealthy visitors from Arab countries. Permit holders are in theory restricted to hunting a maximum of 100 of the protected birds over 10 days, but only in certain areas.

A Houbara bustard flies during a falconry competition -- part of the 2014

 International Festival of Falconry -- in Hameem, 150km west of Abu Dhabi,

on December 9, 2014 (AFP Photo/Karim Sahib)

Saifullah Zehri, district forest officer for wildlife in Chagai district of which Yak Much is a part, told AFP the advance party arrived on Sunday in a C-130 transport plane.

"They were fully equipped and had all the material which is required for bird hunting," Zehri said.

Arab sheikhs are known as enthusiastic hunters, travelling to Pakistan each year to hunt the bird using the traditional Arabian method. They arrive by private jets from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

According to conservative estimates, between 500,000 and a million birds of all species migrate through Pakistan each year -- flying south from Siberia to pass the winter in Central and South Asia.

Hunt: Fahd bin Sultan is said to have killed

1,977 houbara bustards in just 21 days while

on holiday

Related Articles:

Bustard act: Saudi prince accused of slaying 2,000 near-extinct birds while on safari in Pakistan (April 24, 2014)

Tanzania ditches plan to evict Masai for Serengeti 'wildlife corridor'

Botswana to ban wildlife hunting

Spain's King Juan Carlos poses in front of a dead elephant

on a hunting trip in Botswana, Africa. Photograph: Target

Press/Barcroft Media

Spain's king ousted as WWF honorary president

Spain's King Juan Carlos under fire over elephant hunting trip