Brit-born hunter 'normalised killing animals for fun' with bloodthirsty brags

One of Britain’s top trophy hunters has boasted about his bloodthirsty exploits helping clients to slaughterelephants, leopards, hippos and lions.

Robin Hurt features on a list of the world’s most notorious hunters named in connection with a new book published next week to tie in with the 10th anniversary of the slaughter of Cecil the lion by American dentist Walter Palmer. His sickening brag is included in his autobiography where he also said: “I thoroughly enjoy hunting leopards”.

His exploits had been uncovered by Eduardo Goncalves, the founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting,who discovered Hurt shot his first leopard at the age of 12 and his first elephant at 17.

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Author of "Mainlining on Heroin", Eduardo Goncalves, said: “Robin Hurt is more than just a trophy hunter, he is a symbol of an industry that has normalised killing animals for fun. His career spans the colonial era to the modern safari business, and yet the ethos remains the same — it’s about domination and death, dressed up as tradition and sport. This is not conservation. It is cruelty with a price tag.”

Robin, now 80, dubbed ‘the hunter’s hunter’, was born in London but moved to Windhoek, Namibia to be closer to the animals he arranges hunts for.

His firm - Robin Hurt Safaris - is ranked 11th in Safari Club International’s Record Book — a grotesque leaderboard of death — after helping hunters kill at least 37 record-breaking leopards, 16 hippos, 14 lions, three elephants, and countless antelope, hyenas and other species. One leopard killed under Hurt’s guidance is currently ranked as the 14th largest ever recorded. Some animals, including a white-eared kob and a tiang, were reportedly shot using revolvers.

His autobiography, A Hunter’s Hunter, published in 2020, reveals that he has shot with clients “100-pound tuskers (elephants), 200-pound leopards, 10-foot lions with heavy manes, and 30-inch-plus rhinos.” According to the publishers, Safari Press, “Robin’s record is an unsurpassed accomplishment in the history of African hunting.”

In the sickening autobiography, he also tells the story of how a dead elephant provided bait for an unsuspecting lion.

He wrote: “We took off after the jumbo. Bob took a side brain shot, perfectly placed. The old boy never felt a thing. Now. Lion like elephant meat! We had a readymade bait!”

Eduardo Gonclaves explains the elephant is skinned, and its meat dragged along the ground to a place where lions often hunt. Robin Hurt continues [in his autobiography]: "A big heavy maned lion! There was a convenient ant hill offering perfect cover for a stalk. The possibility of the Big Five[the five most challenging and dangerous animals to hunt on foot in Africa: the lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, and African buffalo], all in one day!”

Investigators for the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting also contacted Hurt to ask whether it would be possible to hunt leopards and cheetahs.

“Cheetah, unlike leopard, can’t be baited,” he wrote in an email. “So it’s purely a matter of luck getting a chance at one. Having said that, when hunting we are always on the look out for tracks.”

Cheetahs are Africa’s most endangered big cat, with only 6,500 individuals left according to IUCN, the global conservation body.

In response to hunting a leopard, he wrote “We could do next year if that works for you. We hunt them by baiting.

"We have a very healthy population of leopard in our area, and some particularly large males.”

Hurt said he had a plethora of other animals that the investigators could come and shoot.

“We have large amounts of plains game here. In particular we have superb Kudu, Oryx, Red Hartebeest, Blue and Black Wildebeest, Hartmanns and Burchells Zebra, Warthog, Jackals, Klipspringer, Steenbuck, Brown Hyena, Caracal (very difficult to hunt - again by chance).

“For Sable Antelope, Roan Antelope , Blesbok and Eland we hunt on a nearby neighbors (sic) territory.”

In a telephone call to investigators, speaking with a crisp cut-glass, upper-class English accent, he said: “I love it here.

“I thoroughly enjoy hunting leopards. We’re not allowed to live bait. We have to put like a zebra leg as a bait.

“If we’re patient, you’ll get a good shot. We’ve got some very big males in our area.”

He suggested that the investigators bring their spouses along. “They’ll love it. We’ve got lots to do apart from hunting.” He also boasted of having lots of wealthy clients before complaining about efforts to ban hunting trophies in the UK. He blamed Carrie Johnson, wife of former PM Boris Johnson, for driving the legislation. “She’s a real anti. She just wants to kill the hunting industry.”

But he warned that the investigators should come and hunt as soon as possible because of a looming UK Government ban on hunting trophies.

“I think things are about to change. I know there’s big discussions going on and I don’t know when the new regulations will come in – it will probably take a bit of time. But you’re smart to come hunting now because I believe in a couple of years’ time it’s going to be very, very difficult to take trophies back to UK.”

TV presenter Chris Packham, who has written the forward to "Mainlining on Heroin”, said: “We call ourselves a nation of animal-lovers.

"Well, let's prove it. Let’s help put an end to one of the most disgraceful forms of wildlife persecution in existence. Let’s ban British hunters from bringing their trophies home.

“It’s time to act. So if you love nature documentaries on TV, or The Lion King floats your musical boat, or if you grew up watching Disney’s Dumbo - can I please ask you to ask your MP to get on with the job of banishing trophy hunting to the dustbin of history.“

Robin Hurt said that “safari hunting is one of the best ways to fund the conservation of wildlife and wilderness habitat outside of protected areas”, and said that he offers a combination of legal licenced hunting and photography safaris on the land he manages.

“Take legal hunters, who are wildlife managers, out of the bush and they will immediately be replaced by poachers bent on quick financial returns.”

He also said that Namibia has CITES permits allocated for leopard and cheetah. He admitted to shooting his first leopard at 12 as it “had been killing my grandmother’s sheep” and said the elephant “was a problem animal on Kenya’s Ziwani Sisal estate.”

In reference to the UK introducing a ban on imports, Hurt said it “would be seriously damaging to humans that depend on and steward wildlife, let alone wildlife populations.”

He also said that the Robin Hurt Wildlife Foundation has funded numerous schools, churches, water pipelines and other community projects, as well as caring for 14 rhinos funded by “the legal use of common plains hunting”.

Hunt denied shooting the elephant for bait, saying it was "legally shot by my client" but not to lure a lion.

He also said he is now semi-retired and why he "may be a hunter" he is also a dedicated conservationist. "My livelihood depends on healthy and increasing wildlife numbers. There is very little difference between myself and a rancher, except I prefer to manage wild animals whereas a rancher manages domestic livestock," he said.

It comes after Priscilla Presley has launched a blistering attack on the trophy hunting industry, calling it a “sickness” that must be brought to an end.

The actress and animal rights advocate, who famously married Elvis Presley, also backed the Mirror’s campaign to ban trophy hunting imports into the UK.

Priscilla, 80, said: “Ten years ago, the world learnt about the horrifying killing of Cecil the lion by an American dentist, Walter Palmer. Today it is going to learn about the terrifying scale of killing – even of endangered animals – that continues with the tacit blessing of governments and official bodies.

“Policymakers have had 10 years since Cecil was killed to act. Now they have no more excuses. The facts about this evil ‘sport’ are laid out as plainly as could be”.

Conservationist Jane Goodall added “the days of the great White Hunter should be brought to a close”.

She said: “If there were no industry, there would be no Walter Palmers. And Cecil would have lived out his life in peace, as he should have been able to do.

“Today's trophy hunting industry is a multi-million dollar business that is making a killing – literally - from the suffering and death of magnificent and often endangered animals. If we want to end trophy hunting – which we must – we should think about this vast industry.”