Undercover Trophy Hunter: Britain’s top 20 hunters revealed, by Eduardo Goncalves

Author: Eduardo Goncalves. Review by Julie Hinman

Portsmouth Friend Eduardo Goncalves’ fourth book on trophy hunting explores this – shockingly thriving – British community. Eduardo was once an investigative journalist and he uses this skill to take us into the world and mind of those who enjoy recreational killing. For a year he went undercover posing as someone seeking his first hunt, and was welcomed and readily offered information about this absolutely legal activity.

Eduardo joined a hunting club called Safari Club International and corresponded with experienced trophy hunters. The book is a recording of these conversations. Each of the twenty chapters relates to an individual trophy hunter. These contacts advised on safari companies, and the best places to find the finest animals, guns and bows, taxidermy, shipping, licensing and prices. Tales were shared, enthusiastically detailing the kill, with a nostalgia reminiscent of a luxurious colonialism. There was some concern about the promised law against importing trophies into the UK, but there are ways to circumvent it.

The usual destination for these expeditions is Africa. It isn’t long before it becomes apparent that these trips have nothing to do with conservation, and the only reference to the local inhabitants is to comment how little payment can be offered in order to service the safaris. This is a world in which each trip costs thousands of pounds, with regulars often going twice a year, sometimes taking their family. Like any other marketplace, animals can be provided to order and ‘they make it as fun as possible for you’. Some describe the killing as a compulsion – ‘like mainlining heroin’.

One worrying anecdote is about killing a baboon. The hunter said he knew there was no excuse for it but wanted to get a sense of what it might feel like to kill someone, or someone’s close relative.

It is clear that within this community, of women as well as men, the taking of life is enjoyable, the thrill well worth the money. Rather than avoiding such sights as gruesome, these hunters happily re-live and share their experiences through trophies, photographs, videos and forums.

This is not an easy read. For me, these conversations demonstrate how violence can become reframed as a guilt-free exciting indulgence. It takes only a few with this worldview to cause a lot of suffering and damage the ecosystem. Some boast of killing hundreds of animals (even the endangered) for amusement, facilitated by seemingly unlimited funds, a willingness to exploit, a lack of compassion and a myopic view of the world. Our old book of discipline – Christian Faith and Practice, 1959 – urges that kindness to animals should be explicitly proclaimed a Christian duty and where suffering exists ‘we must testify against such cruelty wherever we find it’. Eduardo has given witness to this darkness, painful to consider on many levels, but shining a light on this shameful human activity.

Sales of the book support the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting. To find out more visit www.bantrophyhunting.org.

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