Notorious Killer

Banner image – Generic licensed image of cheetah with young cubs

“‘Notorious’ trophy hunter brags about killing cheetah cubs – posting dead bodies online,” Daily Mirror, 26 August 2024

“My name is Cameron Hopkins and I proudly killed three cheetah cubs… I’d do it again under the same circumstances….A mother with five cubs crawled under the ­perimeter fence and began killing four or five springboks to teach her cubs to hunt. I shot two [cheetah cubs] just seconds apart, one squatting and the second all (sic) full gallop. We caught another at a water hole and I shot that out of the back of our truck. Another hunter shot one, so we killed four out of five cubs.”

“If you want confrontation, bring your best ­arguments because I’ll explain sustainable hunting as the best conservation tool.”

When questioned by the Mirror, the former editor-in-chief of ­shooting magazine American Handgunner said: “There’s a difference between sport hunting and invasive predator control. The cheetah were invasive predators killing game on private property.” Yes there is a difference, but being able to obtain permits to execute “invasive predators” is a convenient way to sell additional “sports hunting” of species prized by trophy hunters that would otherwise be restricted and subject to quotas (Species+) – for example, Namibia has a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) quota of 150 cheetah for “live and trophies” for 2024 (‘problem-animals’ are often deemed additional to the specified quota and ‘problem animals’ can sometimes be executed in retaliation regardless of any official permit etc.).

Trophy hunters often like to portray their chosen assassination target(s) as the bad guy -ie. the target(s) deserved the retribution subsequently taken upon them. In a 2020 study, Professor Beattie found parallels between trophy hunters’ psychology and how terrorists justified their target(s) as somehow ‘deserving’ of the retribution meted upon them (Beattie, G., 2020) – it allows a level of detachment and attempted justification that simply does not exist in reality.

So, let’s look at the killing of cheetah cubs and mother hunting (plentiful) springbok on private property (Namibia) – is killing cheetah conservation and/or ‘sustainable’ hunting (are they indeed the same thing)?

1. Why is anyone surprised that cheetahs (leopards etc.) seek out prey wherever they find it? These predators do not understand the human paradigms of wild and private prey – but as soon as the line is crossed into ‘private’ then such predators are immediately declared problem-animals (or “varmints” in Hopkins’ parlance). This is rather convenient, because obtaining permits to execute a member of a declining predator population is far easier as soon as it is conveniently declared a ‘problem animal’ – which begs the question, why make the perimeter of one’s private game ranch secure if it allows that game ranch to then try to profit from permits to sell the hunting of ‘problem’ predators such as cheetah, which trophy hunters prize killing?

2. The population trend for cheetah is perhaps 6,517 globally and deemed a decreasing “Vulnerable” species (IUCN Red List). So how can killing three cheetah cubs (and Hopkins wishing he could have killed all five present – another trophy hunter killed the fourth cheetah cub) be contributing anything to the conservation of cheetah, or any other species for that matter? [‘Sustainable’ is a subjective term of course that lacks formal definition when it comes to “sustainable hunting” – trophy hunters always seem to come from ‘the plenty left to kill still’ school of thought – but taking out healthy stock from a declining population is guaranteed to negatively impact the probability of that population to stabilise, or increase]. By the way, springbok has an increasing global population of “1.4 -1.75 million” and is considered of “Least Concern” (IUCN Red List). So how does a cheetah (or any other “Vulnerable” predator for that matter) killing a springbok hinder anything – other than the private game reserve’s profit line presumably if no profit-making retaliatory action was conveniently allowed?

3. The bottom line is, trophy hunters enjoy killing animals – especially those animals the trophy hunters’ prize as a trophy, a rug, head on the wall etc, or just for the pleasure (sic) of killing – Hopkins reportedly said “My only regret is I couldn’t export any of the [cheetah cub] skins so Jamie [Jamie Traut at Eden] made rugs out of them for the lodge.”

4. Trying to dress trophy hunting up under the guise of conservation and/or ‘sustainable’ hunting does not disguise the enjoyment derived by Hopkins et al. from killing animals (otherwise they wouldn’t do it regardless of any excuses they seek to hide behind) – reportedly, Hopkins hunted Africa’s big five animals, an elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and cape buffalo on a single safari.

5. It’s hard to see how killing cheetah cubs [reportedly about one year old] that serves no recognisable conservation/sustainable purpose whatsoever is anything to brag and taunt others about. Hopkins et al can sling all the slurs they want (“Bambi huggers” “I hope some PETA [People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals] pussy tries to boycott my ­business“ etc.) at those that see through the shallow, cynical bravado. Is the notorious killer the cheetah, or the humans that enjoy killing them?

7. It is long overdue for the United Kingdom to distance itself from the worst excesses of the trophy hunting industry – a relic of a colonial pastime way beyond public acceptance today.

Further Reading

“African expert begs Britain to help stop ‘colonial practice’ of trophy hunting,” Daily Mirror, 23 October 2024

“United Kingdom – Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill” IWB, 29 January 2024

“Trophy Hunting – A Psychological Perspective, ” Geoffrey Beattie (Professor of Psychology, Edge Hill University), Routledge, 2020, ISBN 978-0-367-27816-8