The Trophy Hunters

This book explores the psychology of trophy hunting from a critical perspective and considers the reasons why some people engage in the controversial activity of killing often endangered animals for sport. Recent highly charged debate, reaching a peak with the killing of Cecil the lion in 2015, has brought trophy hunting under unprecedented public scrutiny, and yet the psychology of trophy hunting crucially remains under-explored. Considering all related issues from the evolutionary perspective and ‘inclusive fitness’, to personality and individual factors like narcissism, empathy, and the Duchenne smiles of hunters posing with their prey, Professor Beattie makes connections between a variety of indicators of prestige and dominance, showing how trophy hunting is inherently linked to a desire for status. He argues that we need to identify, analyse and deconstruct the factors that hold the behaviour of trophy hunting in place if we are to understand why it continues, and indeed why it flourishes, in an age of collapsing ecosystems and dwindling species populations. The first book of its kind to examine current research critically to determine whether there really is an evolutionary argument for trophy hunting, and what range of motivations and personality traits may be linked to this activity. This is essential reading for students and academics in psychology, geography, business, environmental studies, animal welfare as well as policy makers and charities in these and related areas. It is of major relevance for anyone who cares about the future of our planet and the species that inhabit it.

In this thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Joe Pickett series, the Wyoming game warden is up against a vicious killer who's more beast than man... Local authorities in Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming, are quick to label a rash of animal mutilations as the work of a grizzly bear, but game warden Joe Pickett suspects that something far more sinister is afoot. And when the bodies of two men are found disfigured in the same way, his worst fears are confirmed: A modern-day Jack the Ripper is on the loose—and the killings have just begun.

“(T)he author penned this revenge thriller in the vein of a Twilight Zone episode that turns the tables on trophy hunters.” —BlueInk Reviews “A gruesome tale that clearly and passionately condemns trophy hunting.” —Kirkus Reviews Jack is a husband, father, and chiropractor from Wisconsin who, every year, travels to Africa to satisfy his thirst for killing as a trophy hunter, even though his wife does not approve of his habit. However, the tables are turned when Jack is drugged and whisked away to a secret ranch where he finds himself with two other trophy hunters who’ve met the same fate. To his horror, Jack learns that he and his new friends are now the hunted. Weaponless and without food or water, they must pit themselves against skilled bow hunters who pursue them as if they were no more valuable than the animals they themselves had killed. The three struggle to outwit their killers and run for their lives. The ordeal forces Jack to question his passion for killing animals just for the sake of sport. Separated from his family, and with his life hanging in the balance, he begins to see himself as no less of a monster than the men who now seek to murder him for sport. Gutted by guilt, he desperately tries to escape so that he can return to his family and make things right. Will Jack be able to escape his captors alive, and if so, will his life ever be the same again?

In April 2019 Lord Ashcroft published the results of his year-long investigation into South Africa's captive-bred lion industry. Over eleven pages of a single edition of the Mail on Sunday he showed why this sickening trade, which involves appalling cruelty to the 'King of the Savannah' from birth to death, has become a stain on the country. Unfair Game, to be published in June 2020, features the shocking results of a new inquiry Lord Ashcroft has conducted into South Africa's lion business. In the book, he shows how tourists are unwittingly being used to support the abuse of lions; he details how lions are being tranquilised and then hunted in enclosed spaces; he urges the British government to ban the import of captive-bred lion trophies; and he demonstrates why Asia's insatiable appetite for lion bones has become a multimillion-dollar business linked to criminality and corruption, which now underpins South Africa's captive lion industry.

Rachel and Jessica are nine & ten with love for life. One day they came across big game hunters enjoying their killing sport. Knowing that this is wrong, the two girls must do everything in their power to punch them.