Elephant Tramples and Kills Argentinian Big Game Hunter

An Argentinian hunter traveled to a private game farm in Namibia to shoot an elephant, but one of the herd’s titans that his hunting party was tracking turned the tables on the big game hunter and trampled him to death.

The five trophy hunters, three Namibians and a pair of Argentinians, were in pursuit of the elephants and were deciding on the best vantage point to shoot their targeted pachyderm when one of the elephants noticed the hunting party. The hunters attempted to run for their lives, but the elephant caught up to them, and Jose Monzalvez didn’t stand a chance as he was savagely trampled to death.

Jose, who was working for a Brazilian oil company, had the proper permit to hunt an elephant in Namibia. While getting crushed to death by an elephant is a horrendous way to go, approximately 500 people are killed by elephants worldwide each year.

African elephants are listed by the World Wildlife Fund as a vulnerable species, and the hunting rules vary by nation regarding how or if elephant hunting is permitted. Even though this animal was on private property, not an endangered species, and Jose likely paid a boatload of cash in an attempt to bag an elephant, you still see people admiring this unfortunate man’s gruesome death online just because he was a trophy hunter:

https://twitter.com/Jason/status/899119475156336642

Karma? Another Trophy Hunter Has Been Killed by an Elephant #care2 https://t.co/9ba5BCPlfd#BanTrophyHunting pic.twitter.com/8RiUvsR3DA

— PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE (@Protect_Wldlife) August 18, 2017

Some good news for a change. An elephant kills a trophy hunter. https://t.co/qhmGbgTEZa

— Carole Raphaelle Davis (@caroleraphaelle) August 20, 2017

I completely understand that people find elephant hunting abhorrent, but it is always disheartening that callous people on social media go out of their way to mock someone’s demise over their legal hunting preferences. Jose Monzalvez is a human being with a family who is currently mourning their loss; there’s a time, place, and far more civil way to share one’s feelings about elephant hunting than soulless jabs at the deceased.