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Hunter Who Killed 1,300 Elephants Claims That They'll Soon Be Extinct

Ciara Sheppard

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Hunter Who Killed 1,300 Elephants Claims That They'll Soon Be Extinct

Featured Image Credit: PA

A hunter has boasted about slaughtering more than 1,300 elephants and 340 lions in his lifetime, posing in photos in front of their carcasses.

Eighty-nine-year-old Tony Sanchez-Arino is regarded as the world's most "most dangerous and experienced game hunter" among fans of the blood sport which see animals slaughtered for fun.

Over the course of his life, the Spanish-born killer is thought to have slayed at least 4,000 African animals.

He began his sick career professionally hunting elephants for ivory in 1952 after going his first safari hunt to Africa at age 21.

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Credit: Unsplash/ Gwen Weustink
Credit: Unsplash/ Gwen Weustink

After that, Tony began guiding trophy-hunting clients and adding to his death toll. His latest kill count tallies at 1,317 elephants, 167 leopards and 2,093 buffalo, 340 lions and 127 of the endangered black rhino.

Rather contradictorily, the trophy hunter expressed concern for the extinction of the African elephant in his book 2002 Elephants, Ivory, and Hunters.

In it, he wrote: "The African elephant will be hunted to extinction in the wild within our lifetime, to the shame of humanity."

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Hmmm - makes sense, Tony.

There is thought to be roughly 5,000 black rhinos still existing in the wild. Credit: Unsplash/ Ron Dauphin
There is thought to be roughly 5,000 black rhinos still existing in the wild. Credit: Unsplash/ Ron Dauphin

A study by Conservation Action found that many iconic African animal species, especially those favoured by trophy hunters, are in sharp decline due to widespread poaching. This includes elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards, cheetahs and lions.

At the turn of the 20th century there were roughly 10 million elephants roaming Africa. Today, this figure stands at 430,000, while there are only thought to be 20,000 free-ranging lions in the wild and leopards have numbers of 700,000.

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Perhaps in the most desperate position is the critically-endangered rhino. It's thought there are now just over 5,000 black rhinos and 20,000 white rhinos existing in the wild. Northern white rhinos went extinct in the wild as of November 2015 and there are only three in captivity.

Eduardo Gonçalves, the founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, told The Sun: "The trophy hunting industry is slaughtering elephants left, right and centre.

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"Killing elephants for fun is unacceptable, even more so because of the seriousness of the current crisis.

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"The recent surge in elephant hunting shows that the industry is out of control."

Topics: Life News, elephants, Real Life

Ciara Sheppard
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