In 2012, Gothamist published a series of trophy hunting photos showing Eric and Donald Trump Jr., “posing with a dead elephant, kudu, civet cat and waterbuck while on a big game safari in Zimbabwe last year. In one photo, Donald Jr. proudly holds a dead elephant tail in one hand and a knife in the other. In another, the brothers are seen standing beside a 12’8″ crocodile hanging from a noose off a tree.”

The stomach-turning images were not sickening enough for their father Donald J. Trump who defended his sons’ shocking trophy hunting of African animals after the photos resurfaced at the end of 2015.

Donald J. Trump told TMZ, “My sons love hunting. They’re hunters and they’ve become good at it.” He added, “I know that anything they did was 100% OK in terms of the hunting community.”

Grinning widely with dismembered elephant body parts and bloody leopard corpses may be deemed “OK” in the hunting community, but it is seriously out of step with public opinion, and good science on conservation.

The reality is there is very little support for killing lions, elephants or wolves, and the hunting community knows it. The following is from the belly of the beast – Safari Club International’s (SCI) own blog.

“SCI leaders operate in recognition of certain realities… “Trophy hunting” garnered support from only 28% of the public in the same 2006 survey.”

Author Matthew Scully sums up hunters’ attitudes to wildlife stewardship. “Respect” at SCI, he says, means only “the courtesy of leaving enough behind for the next hunter.” He calls their lack of ethics “socially conscious sadism.”

Collecting wild and endangered species like pieces of furniture is no qualification for conservation stewardship. Trophy hunters, sport hunters or predator hunters kill predators not for food, but for fun. The practice is indefensible – an outdated relic of a barbaric past.

Perhaps CEO of Africa Geographic Simon Epsley sums up “sport killing” culture best in his tribute to Cecil the lion.

“I am so sorry that you had to endure 40 painful hours with an arrow lodged in your body, that you were then shot, beheaded and skinned – turned into a trophy for a man whose only understanding of Africa is that our laws cannot protect you from his money. I am sorry that more was not done to protect you and I am outraged that you and your kind are seen not as kings, but as commodities.”

This post is a tribute to all animals killed by hunters. Please stand with us to oppose blood sports, trophy hunting, and wild animal killings of all kinds.