Original subtitles

Let's just be real quiet 'cause there's a lot of wind today.

- I hope I get a big one. - Are you ready to shoot a big one?

- Yeah. - Well, we're gonna try.

Looks like there are some deer back there.

Yeah, there's deer everywhere.

A pretty good one.

Do you think I could shoot that one?

We have to be able to age him.

We have to be able to tell how old he is before we can make that decision.

He's gonna walk up there if he's curious.

- Well, those are two bucks right there. - Yeah, that's a good one.

OK, just get comfortable and get ready. Take your time.

Aim just to the right leg of the feeder, OK?

You can wait if you want, but that's a shelter shot right there.

Right.

You put him down, son. Where's that spike?

- He's getting up, Dad. - He's not going anywhere, don't worry.

- You killed the doe. - That's a spike.

OK, let's go. Hold that.

Yes!

Are your hands shaking? Alright, let's go.

Good job, buddy. Look at the horns on this guy.

Whoo! Look at that. Wow, that's a textbook shot, Jasper.

Hold this gun like this.

- How's that? - Feels good.

Now, the head up like this, OK?

'Cause if it's down, it doesn't look right.

Let's try that. OK. That's what we want right there.

Smile. First trophy buck.

Like this. Turn. One more. Just smile. We're done.

OK. As they say, that's history.

No more doe and spike culling for you. You're on to the big trophies.

Hold the head.

One, two, three.

Short deep breaths.

Nitro and blood reading's good. Stable.

Where's the brush? The brush?

- Injecting. - Yeah.

Better run. It's on its side now. Let's go.

The operation goes very quickly. It's painless.

Probably less danger than a human being having its wisdom tooth out.

He will be back with his friends within minutes.

It'll take about two years before he goes through the same procedure again

and we know that the poachers prefer rhinos with long and pointed horns.

Every two years to save his life.

I think if he had an opinion to give to you, he would say,

"I'm very happy to sacrifice my horn in order to save my life."

There he is, already walking normally. He looks fine.

I truly believe that I have the recipe to save the rhino from extinction.

Sell the horns, keep the rhinos alive, and breeding more and more.

I will give you a challenge. Give me one animal that's gone extinct

while farmers were breeding it and making money out of it.

There's not one. Not one.

That's a dorper lamb. That's what we do. We raise babies.

We feed 'em, we keep the predators out of 'em

and we try to breed good genetics

and try to raise the next generation.

Alright, I've got your friend, your little brother. Go.

And so those lambs will be three months old when they're weaned

and they will go to a small packer in central Texas,

and that lamb will be harvested

and typically will go into your high-end grocery chains

and then to a few specialty restaurants.

I think we have a problem with people thinking that all animals are pets.

I don't think you can explain that.

You raise a chicken to kill a chicken to eat a chicken.

If they can't understand that, that's an infantile frame of mind.

I don't know how to get in their mind.

All I can tell 'em is I love raising these animals. I love those lambs.

Even the ones that are gonna be somebody's lamb chops

this summer for July 4th.

But that's what they're for. They're not for anything else.

We don't care how it looks, we just want the big one.

Pull him. To the side, guys.

One, two, three.

Keep him on the grass.

Pull him.

Keep it on the grass.

You are closing his nose. He must breathe.

You can't put your hand there.

Let me close your nose also.

Yes, 3.5 meters.

OK, thank you, guys.

Well, there's a big industry in our country, not just the crocodiles.

The lions, the sables, the buffalo.

Everything has been bred for a purpose at the end of the day.

So, yeah, sure, some of them will be hunted.

We are, as humans, going to eat it or we're going to use the skins,

and then that's the cycle of life.

Did one escape? John, John! Call John!

Bring the rope!

- Hello. - Hello, Christo?

Yes.

I want to know if you do hunting?

Who am I speaking with?

Yes, Neels, we do hunting.

I'm just busy catching crocs and relocating them

so today is not good for me.

Let him bite on this and then we can pull him.

Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly.

These are still wild animals.

Even if they've been kept in captivity like this,

they will kill you in an instant and eat you up.

So then once it's closed up, you load it on

and it's ready for transport to its next destination.

If you don't come to Vegas,

I think your business will eventually not make it.

This is the place to come,

and everyone tries to be better than the next person.

That's my defense in breeding lions or buffalo or sable.

It's a passion, to have your wild game and be able to breed them

and make sure you get better quality and genetics,

and you're actually proud of it.

The Safari Club International show

is the largest hunting convention on the planet.

We have 2,000 booths that are out there on the floor.

We'll probably run 20,000 different folks through here

from all over the world.

And you'll be able to see anything that you want

in terms of hunting, hunting support and conservation.

Four of you, eight animals, big cats.

I know that a lot of people are confused

how hunting and conservation go together.

Hunt South Africa on a ten-day game hunt for two hunters.

About two hours ago, there was an auction item that was an elephant hunt.

20,000. 22,500. Let's go. Blow him out of the water. 22,500.

- Yeah! - Thank you, sir.

And that elephant hunt sold for about $50,000.

And that money will all go back into conservation.

Here!

Sold right there. $18,000. 18.

Item number six. A mink coat.

The coat is not exchangeable and model is not included.

The number's valuation, $29,000...

"I don't know," my granddaughter says.

"I don't know why my gran wants to shoot a zebra."

So, I don't know, I'm losing face with my three-year-old little granddaughter

'cause I'm gonna go shoot a zebra.

And crocodiles are really mean,

so I don't feel bad about killing one of those.

Besides that, I want a pair of boots. And a purse and a wallet. And a belt.

You can not only pick the species you want,

but you can pick the actual animal you want.

So if you want a male or a female, older, younger, color, type of fur.

You can just pick whatever animal you want

from the menu that they offer you, see the price and book the kill.

The Safari Club convention is the ultimate meat market for exotic species,

and one of the prime attractions is to get a big five grand slam.

And so you shoot one of each of the following species.

Buffalo, which would cost you about $8,000 or $9,000.

Leopards for about 20, elephants for 45,

lions for 50,000.

And the most expensive, because it's the rarest,

the rhino for $350,000.

So this is all the sort of stuff that encourages this collecting,

this obsessiveness for more and more and more,

and this status is applied

to the individual hunter who achieves those ends.

I was hoping to be at Safari Club and they were discussing fish and wildlife

and all the bans they kept instituting,

and there was a rumor that they wanted to put lions on the threatened list

and further regulate their take.

And I decided at that moment that if the big five was my goal,

then I had to step my plans up drastically.

Get it ready.

Wait, wait, wait. And take him.

Yeah, I love it.

It's exciting to see people get here.

They're going on a big hunt, so they're excited.

They've worked very hard to earn the money to be able to pay for this hunt.

And they come here with anticipation,

they come here with a lot of nervousness

because in Africa it is dangerous.

We're right on the edge of a herd of elephant. Find you a good bull.

You hit him, just keep hitting him again till he's down. Sound good?

- Sounds good. - Follow me up here.

If you go back a thousand years, the balance of nature was pretty stable.

Unfortunately, man has kind of screwed this up.

We have encroached on so much natural land

that the species, all the species, now have to be managed.

For instance, too many elephants in Botswana.

On the right, on the right. There he is. Hit him again.

He's down. He's down.

Of course, we can't do this with live animals,

but kind of get you pumped up, what you're gonna feel on the real deal.

Hunter's remorse,

it's not been something I've experienced recently.

But as a child, I certainly remember it.

From the flight deck, for those of you leaving us,

I'd just like to welcome you to Katima.

On behalf of the crew, thank you for flying with Air Namibia.

When I was a little boy, I remember I had a BB gun.

I can vividly remember my mother telling me,

"You can go shoot birds but don't shoot a red bird."

What did I do? I went and shot a red bird.

And I can still remember holding that bird in my hands

and looking at its beak

and just seeing how beautiful it was and how it was made.

Right then in that moment,

I realized that there is no way I could have loved that bird anymore

even though it was dead.

And I think a lot of us, as trophy hunters, feel the same way.

We just want that experience to go and hunt that animal one time.

We really just want one.

There you go.

What's wrong, my baby?

Yeah, Johnny.

It's not a good morning again this morning.

Oh, fuck. Now what?

- It's a dead rhino here. - An adult rhino?

- Yeah. - Fuck.

- Has she got a calf, Johnny? - Yeah, she's got a two-year-old calf.

- Two-year-old calf. - Yeah.

Fuck me. It never stops, does it?

Yeah.

Heartbreaking.

Poor calf doesn't know what to do with itself.

Don't cry.

It's gonna be alright, boy.

Don't be childish.

I'll just start with a post-mortem and then I'll decide how to leave them.

- That's fine. Alright then. - OK.

OK.

The goal of this farm and myself is to breed 200 rhinos a year.

I have lost quite a few of my breeding stock.

Disease will always be a factor.

Unfortunately so will poaching.

The odds are stacked against them.

And I'm always for the underdog.

But more to the point, I got to know them,

and they are the last animal in the world

that deserves the persecution. They don't deserve it.

They are the nicest, most user-friendly animal

that wants to stay this side of extinction.

They definitely are the most magical creatures.

I can sit and watch them for hours and hours and hours.

And they're ancient.

They don't look like they belong in today's life. Yet they're still here.

I'm hoping that people get a whiff of places like this,

what we're trying to do here,

that more of them will start thinking of opening their own breeding operations

so that hopefully together we can revive the numbers

before we destroy another species because of mankind.

Almost every other wild animal has to be killed to get what people want,

whether that is horns, skin, meat.

Rhino is the only exception,

and that's why I concentrate on rhinos,

because you don't have to hunt them, you don't have to kill them.

In fact, you shouldn't, because they're growing gold for you.

The rhino horn belief has been around for millions of years.

Unfortunately there are more people that believe in rhino horn

than there are Christians on this earth, so...

It's very difficult you're gonna tell 600 million Christians or whatever

that God doesn't exist.

By the same token, you're not gonna tell people rhino horn doesn't work.

This horn weighs about four kilos. In Vietnam, on the black market,

the retail value of this horn would be about a quarter million dollars.

It's more expensive than gold or heroin by weight.

The illogical part of it is that

I have four ton of rhino horn in expensive security,

which, very conservatively, I could get $60 million.

But we're not allowed to sell it.

When I started this project,

it was legal to sell rhino horn in South Africa.

In 2009, our government put a moratorium on the trade in rhino horn.

But since the ban, poaching has skyrocketed.

The very crook who now will kill a rhino and sell it illegally,

if he could sell the horn legally, he will never kill a rhino.

Who would kill the hen that lays the golden egg?

Maybe somebody's watching for crocs. I hope.

Ooh!

There's a little hole right there.

It's all good.

This is one of the last destinations probably in Africa

where there's no fences. It's absolutely open.

You have to work for your trophy.

We believe here that if you want to hunt,

it's all in the food, it's walk and stalk.

It's giving also the animal a chance.

So, for us, the three things is

if he hears you, he smells you or if he sees you, it's game over.

Slow, slow, slow.

The build-up to pulling that trigger, in my case, started 18 months ago.

So it's a long build-up to that point.

Preparation, planning, buying plane tickets,

paying a deposit on a safari, talking with your PH about the plans.

What are we gonna do? How are we gonna hunt 'em? All that stalking, planning.

And then finding that the animal is coming.

And then the animal's there.

At the back.

And then you pull the trigger. And then, boom, you got him.

And then all of that anticipation changes into a different emotion

of joy and relief and excitement and anticipation,

because you wanna go over to him and see.

What does he look like? What does he feel like?

What does he... Where did he fall?

- Which one are you looking at? - This one here on the left.

OK.

Wait.

- Wait a minute. - Yeah?

No, no, no. That's a young bull.

Let's go back.

Let's go. Let's go, let's go.

Philip.

Let's go.

I think it's too dangerous. Too many, they're too clumped up and...

All the ones I saw had good tusks, the big ones.

But they're female. It's all females.

We are looking for an old animal that we can harvest for meat, so...

OK. Keep going.

For the better part of two centuries now,

you've had this hunting culture, first in Britain and now in America,

that it's somehow rugged and exciting

to be out in the wilderness and hunting,

and Teddy Roosevelt bought into that when he hunted thousands of animals,

including something like 5,000 mammals

and started to record all of these kills.

The hunters' accounts of what they're doing

makes me sick to my stomach sometimes about finding this amazing bull elephant

and putting a bullet in the animal's head.

And that gives them a rush of excitement.

Now, they cloak that in money, conservation, helping people,

so, yeah, Roosevelt is declaring all these parks national parks

and protecting wilderness,

but he's also killing thousands of animals at the same time

because he wanted to be able to do that hunting.

He wanted to be able to consume those wild animals.

The hunting industry is trying to convince people

that the way it was in Roosevelt's time is the way it still is today.

A hunter was somebody who was willing to go out

and spend three weeks walking around on foot,

tracking an elephant, tracking a lion, to shoot it and take home a trophy.

There was a challenge. There was a sense of sport.

But what has happened in the last ten or fifteen years

has been a growing segment of the hunting demographic,

which are referred to as the shooters.

And the shooters may have to spend as much money as it takes

to get a three-week permit,

but if they can kill everything in the first two days,

they'll do it and they'll fly home.

It's that mentality that really fed the birth of the canned hunting industry.

Basically you've gone shopping at some import/export place

and you've got your rug, you got your mantelpiece,

but it's not sport, it's just killing.

Shit. I'm out of bullets.

Piece of shit.

Where is it now?

That is one big-ass fucking crocodile.

Yeah.

I'll tell you, the adrenaline has been worth every penny of it.

It's not like we can fetch it out.

- Something's coming out there. - Yeah.

- It's coming out there. - Oh, fuck.

That's not yours.

- Is that yours? - I don't know.

- No, but I wanna shoot it right now. - No, no.

I wanna have... I wanna have two.

That can't be yours, swimming like that. That's impossible.

Oh, no, that is. He keeps, like, hurting.

It is? Watch, I wanna shoot, so...

- Is that the one? - Yeah.

I'll shoot it with this one. Let me put my gear down. I might drop it.

- What's this? - That's the blood.

- Blood? - For the last crocodile.

- The last crocodile? - Yeah.

It's just waiting for us to get close. Oh, it's moving its eye.

I'll shoot it again.

Just shoot it in the brain.

Oh, yeah, motherfucker!

- Yeah, he's destroyed. - No, they'll fix it.

They'll fix it. They'll fix it. That's what taxidermists do.

That's why you pay them.

I'm done for the day. It's party time, boy.

How much for that sucker?

That white one? That's a big white lion.

- They're about 35. - 35,000?

- How much was Cecil? - Cecil was expensive. 50,000.

Make sure all your tags and things are on them

so there's no mistake on the trophies, OK?

Skin it now, salt it, put it in,

so that we know tomorrow when they start with new animals,

we're finished with today's work.

I was in the cattle industry for, like, ten, 12 years,

and because we had a lot of game in the area,

I had some other outfitters those years which always contacted me and said,

"Please, Christo, can I bring a client over? We'd like to come and hunt."

And I'd say, "OK, fine, bring the clients."

And then I start meeting overseas clients

and it looked to me like it can become a good business.

So what we offer our clients is there's the lodge, there's a Jacuzzi,

and in the hunting area you can drive around, try and spot the animals.

You get off and you try and get the client up to a point

where he can have a clear good shot at that animal.

Good shot. Good shot, buddy.

And normally, in the middle of the day when it's really hot,

we bring the clients into the blind area

where they can sit down for the rest of the afternoon,

so it makes it really comfortable.

The client can stand straight up

and be able to shoot through that slot over there.

This may be, like, 25 yards.

We will put some feeders out here as well

so that the animals can only come into certain areas

where there's water for drinking.

Then we clear out around all these water points where the blinds are

because you would like to see the animals when they come in,

and that makes it an exciting hunt and it makes it a natural environment,

which is very important.

Why don't you kill? You're just wasting petrol.

Yeah, it's not a photo safari. You got the wrong guide.

You should get a guide which kills things.

Sorry. OK, sorry.

Just keep in mind, we don't feed no Americans if they don't shoot something.

I would love to have a giraffe. I probably would shoot it myself too.

Here's some more.

He says it's too expensive and we don't have room for it in our house.

I would find room for it in our house,

even if I probably would have to build on to the trophy room,

which I don't want to.

A beautiful animal. I got one of those last year.

I still have a warthog and a baboon and a bush buck,

a bush pig, a caracal, so the list is still pretty big,

and we have the rest of this day and two more days to hunt.

So we'll try to do our best to get the most on the list,

but it's not as easy.

It seems like once we're going for them, they're real skittish.

Now you just try to get all this grass out of the way.

Wash all the blood off. Need water, only a little.

You're trying to stalk the plains game.

You know, animals, they get the feeling and get used to our bush environment.

One, two, smile.

And then eventually they've got the experience

to allow them to go after the big five.

That was the most expensive one.

Damn, that was a good shot.

- Beautiful photo. - And one, two...

- A kiss? - Yes.

That's a nice one.

Now I'm happy she got a second one.

- And oil's up two dollars. - You what?

- Oil's up. - Oil's up two dollars.

Let's add another one to the list. Let's add that bitch to the list.

We're going to start really low, and what about one million here.

500,000 now.

- 800,000. One million. Thank you, sir. - Yeah!

One million that we have now. I've got 1.2 now, 1.73 there.

I've got 1.73 now. We have 1.750.

Every outfitter, if he has a lot of clients

or runs a good hunting business, you kind of shoot out your animals.

So you have to buy in new blood.

The breeding is very important because that's where the money is.

The money is in the breeding.

We've had buffalo go for between four and five million US dollars,

and also sable bulls go for four or five million US dollars.

It's good for the industry.

Very big demand and a good market for it.

At 2,600,000, and done.

You have the capitalist system, the profit motive,

making money off wildlife.

So it's a remarkable development

but in South Africa they went through an incredible period

of removing nature from their countryside in the 1800s,

and they literally removed everything.

It's only been in the last 20, 25 years

that there has been this recognition that they could take private land

and private owners themselves could profit by restoring these areas.

Now, till recently, this land was mostly used for livestock,

but a lot of people decided,

"Well, we could get more revenue if we do game ranching."

You'd actually get much more money than raising cows.

In this model, they're filling the market

by first going rare ungulate species like sable or roan

that are still attractive for hunters,

and you can also start breeding your buffalo

so they have abnormally huge horns.

And then as the market saturates, people are thinking,

"Well, you know, I've got all this land and we could bring back big five."

Now you actually have got a restored ecosystem.

And so this has been a success story.

There are far more lions in South Africa now

than there were 100 years ago.

There's far more predators in general in South Africa

than there were 100 years ago.

Initially it may have been because this would have involved

the slaughter of some animals,

but then you could go towards a more naturalistic thing

that would not have happened otherwise.

If we're only gonna restrict what we view as domesticated animals

to those species that have been domesticated

hundreds or thousands of years ago,

then we're just gonna see a lot of these species go away,

and I think that there are a few species, like rhino,

that there should be rhino farms.

And one needs to recognize that what they've achieved in South Africa

should not be lost.

This was a breeding buffalo bull.

This buffalo bull was bought for millions.

And eventually he was done breeding

and we had to put him out there for hunting.

So a Canadian client came over

and he was very happy to harvest such a beautiful trophy.

So nothing goes for waste, nothing, even that animal,

and we hope we will have, like, maybe 50 or 70 babies of him running around.

But eventually, one day, he's going to be honored,

to put him up on the trophy room, where someone can walk in and say,

"You know what? That was a top breeder."

He'll still be honored today as you look at him and see it was a great trophy.

He makes a real great trophy.

Do you ever get attached to a lion,

that it's hard to release it for a hunt?

Is there some animal like that, that you're like, "This one, I..."

All animals, it doesn't matter what animal it is,

if you love animals, you'll get attached to them.

You go out there every day, you see this animal, you're feeding him...

the buffalo, your sable, of course,

but there will be a time when you have to let go.

Cut.

You must cut this.

That is true. There is animals you can't let go of.

You know, you will be playing with them and they become like a friend.

OK.

Yeah!

- I busted a hip. Did you see that? - Congratulations.

- Got him running away. - Yeah.

Oh, mercy.

He's done.

Maybe if you come to the side.

- Where? - To the chest.

- Straight through there? - Yeah.

Let's stand a little bit back.

I think he's finished.

Cigarette?

Is he an old one, Philip?

No. Just a bull.

Doesn't have... the trophy quality of a big elephant.

You know, it will never grow big, so, yeah.

This is not an elephant.

It's too small.

It's an own use.

Own use. You can say that, but this elephant is really young.

This is the same elephant that ate in my crop field.

No way.

Yes, he ate all my watermelons!

These are tough times. They must kill 30.

No, they are only allowed to hunt seven elephants.

Seven?

The own-use elephant

is the elephant that we have to hunt for the community.

As part of their quota, they get some animals that they can harvest for meat.

Fifteen years ago, people poached animals because they wanted meat

and there was no value to the animal for them.

Now they know they must protect the wildlife.

There's not only the meat,

there's actually money going back to their pockets.

Good morning!

This one is just for a week.

You need another one.

We need another one. A big one. Not like this.

How many goats were killed?

- Five. - Five?

There is only one baby goat left.

- Did you see the lion? - When I ran out, the lion was gone.

I am very sorry.

It's difficult here.

We put thorns at the entrance

but the lion pushed the thorns away and pulled the cow out

and dragged it over there.

It ate everything but the bottom of its legs.

Only the bones remained.

We know that elephants and lions

generate money for the community when they are hunted here.

We have to look after all the animals.

Now, if someone poaches our animals, they go to jail.

So it's up to you, the wildlife officers, to decide what to do.

Whether you will kill this lion or not.

You need to have a plan on how to handle this.

Like this or like that.

We want to get involved so this doesn't happen again,

but there are some other stakeholders involved,

people organizing photographic safaris,

and they don't want the lions to be killed.

After the lion killed our cows, we brought the last one into the house.

The cow is sleeping in the house with us.

We called you, but you were not there when it happened.

If he smells cow inside, next stage he will go into the houses.

Break the door where people sleep.

These are recurring problems and we can't carry on like this.

Somebody's gonna get eaten. It's just a matter of time.

Maybe it's better people cry about a dead lion

and we don't cry about a dead person. Better that way.

We go to extreme lengths to keep animals from being shot

on the problem animal control program.

Probably 95% of the time, we can get the animals out of the communities

and get them back into where they belong and try and keep the two separate,

'cause they don't mix well.

And people are killed every year

by elephant and hippo and crocodile and lion.

That's part of life. Part of life here, anyway, certainly.

Lions come in and absolutely destroy a guy's livelihood

and he doesn't have a way to sustain his future.

Maybe does he end up in the bush, putting up wire snares and poaching?

At the end of the day, you know, we're fighting a poaching war.

We are trying to recruit people. We do the anti-poaching campaigns,

trying to teach people and explain to them the importance of animals.

The problem is, people, they are suffering.

So they are forced now to get into the poach to make a living.

Stay. Stay.

Stay. Be a good boy. Be a good boy. Stay, honey, stay.

I don't know if I want to see this.

Yeah, David, you don't. Let me tell you, you definitely don't.

That one over there was only 14 months old.

I think two of them were pregnant.

And then another cow with a young calf was also wounded.

She still has a bullet in her brisket.

Whether that'll prove fatal or not, we don't know.

Fucking sick.

They can give you ten, 12, even 13 calves in their life.

That is all wiped out.

In one moment.

The bodies were actually mutilated.

Means that there's definitely, sort of, locals involved.

I'm suspicious about the camp master, because the rhinos, they know him,

and he knows how to go and stand in the middle of them quietly,

and then maybe, you know, two guys,

one banging that side and one banging this side.

That's how I pictured it in my nightmare.

So where does that leave me?

Yeah, but what I was saying

is that we're going to have a harder thing convincing the pro-trades...

- You mean the anti-trades. - Yeah, the anti...

Convincing the anti-trades, you mean?

- Yes. John, you should know... - I know that.

I know that better than any of you. I'm there.

I'm in the fight, all day and every day, so I know that.

I am not pro and I'm not anti.

Both of those approaches have merit in cases and not merit,

because the motives behind the commercial acts

are very seldom conservation-based.

They are profit-based and they sell it to the public on the basis of...

- It pays, it stays. - ...it pays, it stays, yeah.

I'm not a missionary for your cause, not at all.

Just be for the rhinos, not for my cause.

It's all I fucking want. Be for the rhinos.

Try and keep them alive. That's all I'm fucking asking everybody.

- You and I can have a discussion. - Let me tell you something.

If you are anti-trade, then you're anti-legal trade.

Then there's two things I want you to think about.

Firstly, you are keeping the money away from me

which I need to protect my rhino.

Secondly, if you're anti-legal trade, by implication, to me,

you are pro-illegal trade, and those are the poachers.

The fact of the matter is that...

Fact of the matter is in ten years' time,

if there's not legalization, you won't see one fucking rhino here.

They'll all be dead or gone. That's the fact of the matter.

Open! Open! Open!

Go outside! Get out!

Get out! Get out! Get out!

- Sister... - Mm?

Sister, the black boots are coming today.

And they are tough. They are tough.

And they are serious.

- The older wife knows everything. - What does she know?

She knows everything about our husband's poaching.

They don't tell me anything because I might betray them.

There's a gun here.

Here?

Lie down.

We know you're lying. Lie on the ground.

Don't beat me.

Don't beat me.

You can die for nothing if you're lying.

The husband had been going into the bush and shooting elephants.

That network over the years, probably over the last ten years,

would have accounted for a couple of thousand elephant at least.

So, yeah, a bad guy. Done a lot of bad things.

Tell this fucking lady now we are now tired of this, yeah,

and we are going to leave her with boots...

We kill! Do you understand?

Where is the gun? Tell us now!

- The gun is with Tobaco! - Yeah, better answer.

Here is the gun cabinet.

Sit down, boys.

Sit down!

I'm tired of this nonsense.

They are not dangerous kids.

On this system of poaching,

these young boys will grow up to be in the same system.

Maybe these boys will end up

carrying ivory in the bush and we will kill them.

Better that these kids hear the straight story.

Come here.

We've known your father a long time. The future in the bush ain't a future.

- There's no future there. - Of course.

Otherwise you can die, leaving your family behind.

- Yeah. - Or to be jailed.

And you're young guys with plenty of future to your side.

I know if we stay like this, we will end up... in the bush.

We will end up meeting in the bush. And that's not good.

That's not going forward.

We're fighting this war for the community.

This community and another community further away

want these elephant's teeth. They're worth a lot of money

and they will go to all lengths to get what they want.

So, yeah, we need to look in the mirror every morning.

I make a point of it. Every single morning I look in the mirror.

Because we've gotta make sure that we don't cross the bounds,

that we can't lose our humanity for humanity.

I think that's really important.

It gets harsh and we do things sometimes that... you saw it... scare people.

But we have to do what we've gotta...

We have to keep this fight going.

It's a war to save elephants from extinction.

Twenty rhinos were poached in less than a year. Twenty.

When I fired the previous security company,

I already had a suspicion

that some of them were involved in the rhino poaching.

One of the people in that team I really liked was the second in command,

a chap by the name of Thomas Chauke.

That is our friend Thomas at the time that he was here.

I've got a very reliable report from the police

that Thomas was in on the poaching.

That is, emotionally, the worst part of this was who your friends are.

Who are the friends of your rhino? You feel you can't trust anybody.

I won't be able to guarantee zero losses on this property.

But most of those incidents which are mapped there

are as a direct result of having the wrong people on site

with not the right equipment, not the right training,

not being highly motivated.

So we will now change the policy completely

to have elite reaction unit.

I don't necessarily want them in a body bag,

but I would like to upset them,

for them to say, "No, no, no. You don't wanna go to that place."

We have a case of shots being fired.

We have to bring the chopper in.

While a lot of their politicians are praying for peace,

we are praying for war.

More conflict is probably needed in this arena to sort out the problem.

Quite frankly, I feel poor, because they're all very expensive.

Radar seems to be somewhere between ten and 20 million rand.

This chopper here is costing me nearly a million a month.

Then there's the underground man and the bloody information man

and, and, and.

Derek, would that have come through as an alarm

if you'd tapped it on the top of the fence?

I mean, why did they come in here? They walked from that bottom road there

all the way up here into this camp to come and poach these.

Why? Just 'cause they're fucking with my head, or why?

You feel very helpless, you know.

Good morning, darlings.

Let me scratch you.

This one is four months old.

I don't think anybody ever thought

any private person would have 1,300 rhinos.

And next year we're going to have 200 more, maybe.

But I suppose it's an addiction, I would think.

And where do you think it's gonna stop?

When he kicks the bucket, I guess.

Then hopefully one of his sons will carry on.

He won't stop before he's six foot under.

My dream is to carry on what my dad's doing,

is to carry on with the rhino breeding.

Unfortunately, the irony, I wouldn't breed rhino

because it's too expensive and it's very high risk.

I mean, we've had death threats here at the house.

If I see what he's gone through in sort of the last 15 years,

his financial position has got gradually worse and worse

the more rhino, you know, he's acquired.

I've invested $50 million in this project

with virtually no return.

This project will come to an end unless it is making money.

I can go on selling my assets, but it is not sustainable in the long run.

I used to have six resorts. I used to have over 3,000 beds.

All the resorts have been

and this is the last one that will be sold on auction.

A bid, sir? At $17 million.

At 17 and a half. At 17 and a half.

Nineteen. At 19 now.

Half. At 19 and a half.

At 20,750,000 now.

At 22,750,000.

At 24 million.

For the first time, for the second time at 24 million.

Thank you, ma'am. It's yours.

After taking various advice, I believe that I don't have any option

but to take the government to court to lift the moratorium.

If I don't, I will run out of money

and my rhinos will be killed by poachers.

Sure.

We believe that the poachers would have shot an elephant today

and we hope to meet them on the road and explain to them

that this no longer happens in this area.

There was a sting operation in the district south of us

where a lot of our armed poachers come from.

And what had transpired was a guy whipped out a knife,

tried to stab the police officer. He was shot.

He died shortly after that.

Yeah, don't know.

It was a bit strange 'cause the next day I had to go and shoot an elephant

on behalf of the council.

But walking up to that elephant,

which is an incredibly dangerous thing to do,

and you have this huge adrenaline rush as you're walking up to it.

Your heart's going. Your head's going.

You need to cleanly shoot this animal,

and as it folds, it falls to the floor after your shot,

there's just this huge drop of emotion, for me, anyway.

And it's, to me...

really sad.

It turns from this beautiful animal

into this floppy mess of grey skin.

To me, shooting elephant's hard.

I understand it's gotta be done and I have to do it sometimes,

but it's a tough call.

Yeah, it's an emotional thing, killing an animal,

and I think maybe that's a part of the hunting,

where people have this huge build-up

and then this emotional switch.

I get that, so I understand maybe if others get it,

and maybe it becomes a passionate addiction.

I don't know.

- And many more! - Cheers!

Want a bite?

Your hair's all wild. You just spilled it.

What are you, some kind of wild animal?

Mom, Dad, y'all watch. Philip's opening his gift.

Oh, I remember what these are.

"Birthday cheers on your quest for the big five."

- Something merlot. - Something.

And some kind of chocolates. Is that what that is?

- Happy birthday. - Thank you.

Well, unfortunately, this is my birthday present, I guess.

They've listed the lions as threatened, and all lions as threatened,

and another species is endangered. So, effectively, lion hunting is over.

When this all goes into effect, I don't know.

We're just a few months out, so maybe we're OK, maybe we're not.

Maybe we have to go to a different country.

Maybe the whole trip's ruined. I don't know.

So I think the thing that makes me the maddest

is this service director, Dan Ashe, says that, and I quote,

"That it's a privilege, not a right

for us to bring back these trophies from other countries."

You know, I don't think he was elected by anybody.

I think he's an appointed bureaucrat and he has no right to tell me

what my rights are and what a privilege of being a US citizen is.

I'm gonna be the first hunter in there for the hunting season,

and we planned it that way,

so I'm going as early as I can in this coming year.

But it might not be early enough.

Ladies and gentlemen, today is a very significant day

for the South African Predator Association.

I want to inform you about what is happening

with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

And what are we going to do to open the lion industry again?

That's the bottom line.

We will do anything to prevent losing the American market.

There are about 150 farms in South Africa

that have permits to keep and breed lions.

About 70% of all hunters are coming from the US and Canada.

And right now the importation of lion trophies will be much more difficult,

and that will give my industry a severe blow.

If we can't get hunters to hunt our lions

we slaughter the lions and sell their bones.

What other alternative is there?

If you cannot look after your animals and there's no value to your animals,

how will you look after them?

Where will you find the money to feed them

if you take away the value of it?

I have to get rid of it. There's no other option for me.

Walk away from my place, let people shoot them, euthanize them?

What else? What can you expect me to do?

I can't just let them open the camps

and let them run out free and kill people.

Just once in a while, an individual animal

can capture the public imagination and change public attitudes.

Worldwide outrage over the death of Cecil the lion,

killed at the hands of an American dentist.

Cecil's death created a sort of public groundswell of opinion

that's been translated into real action.

You know, I eat hamburgers, but that was not a hunt. That was a murder.

And this guy must have quite a collection of animal heads

because, well, here he is posing next to a bear he shot.

He killed, like, half of Noah's Ark.

Killing a lion for sport?

Not in the era of Instagram and Facebook.

Not to a generation brought up to relate to Simba.

We'll always be together, right?

No, we won't. I'll be murdered by a dentist from Minnesota.

See that constellation,

the one that looks like a white guy in his 50s with a fake smile?

Walter fucking Palmer,

you hunted Cecil the lion like a fucking cowardly bitch.

Dentist Palmer, welcome to the court of public opinion.

I'm really happy that social media is getting this story out.

Stop talking about it. I'm gonna get really angry.

What would happen if you were being hunted, motherfucker?!

We'll never forgive what you did, Palmer!

In the wake of public outrage

over the killing of Cecil the lion,

the three largest US airlines are instituting bans

on carrying trophies as freight.

Somebody is paying for this thing to function.

Someone provides the clothing, the scopes, the outdoor gear,

and it makes the big corporate players in this think very carefully

about how closely they wish to be associated with certain practices.

And I think that that will change and it will change fast

and people will say, "Mm-mm, don't wanna be part of this."

- Save our lions! - Ban canned hunting!

- Save our lions! - Ban canned hunting!

- Save our lions! - Ban canned hunting!

Save our lions!

We will shame these people. We will ostracize these people.

We will put such pressure on our governments

that they've got nowhere to go. And it isn't just lions.

A certain gentleman that breeds 1,200 white rhinos in South Africa

and spends 5.2 million rand a year feeding them and looking after them

says he can no longer afford to pay for all of that.

He'll have to kill those animals unless he can sell the rhino horn.

And we've gotta say enough is enough. We won't allow that to happen.

We won't allow South Africa to abuse its position...

Welcome. I'm here tonight to moderate a debate

between two very prominent conservationists,

Will Travers of the Born Free Foundation and Mr. John Hume.

I'm very keen to hear what he's gonna say.

He's far more experienced than I am in wooing the public.

Don't forget that. That's what he does, he woos the public.

And that's how they collect money and that's why he's so good at it.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

I'm a retired property developer

and now custodian of 1,403 rhinos.

If I can sell the horns,

my 1,400 will become 2,000, 3,000 and 10,000.

I cannot see what is wrong with that when my rhinos are happy alive.

Come and see them where they are.

I have the recipe, but it takes a lot of money.

I have a way to raise the money

without going begging all over the world.

All I need is for it to be legal.

I don't think there's any legitimate case

for you having these animals in large numbers

in private areas of owned land where you can harvest them,

where you can profit from them,

where you can put them into the international market,

where we can lead to more destruction.

Excuse me, sir. I don't think you understand Africa.

You simply don't understand Africa.

How many consumers could you supply from your rhinos?

I trim my horns every two years,

so I can produce, with my current rhinos, one ton of horn a year.

Your rhino. What about the rest of the population?

They must do the same.

That's why I wanna give them to the communities.

I want to teach the community...

What about Sumatran rhino, Indian rhino? Won't you "flood" your market?

So you want me to give up and let my rhino all die?

It's all about your rhino. What about the global rhino?

Let the global rhino do the same thing.

You have to speak for all rhino, not just yours.

The "if it pays, it stays" principle, the commodification of wildlife.

Elephants will stay if we can sell their ivory.

Lions will stay if the wealthy elite can shoot them for fun.

And rhino will stay, albeit on ranches very similar to Mr. Hume's,

if their horns can be sold to remote, distant, deluded buyers.

What a vision of nature that will be,

contained, confined, commercialized and counterfeit.

South Africa is yet to decide on a push to end a global ban

on buying and selling rhino horn.

The move could open up a $2 billion market

and also determine the fate of the critically endangered species.

Rise.

When we assess this trade,

what this trade is actually doing is going into the international trade

and the international trade is unlawful.

The moratorium is one of the six reasons, top reasons,

why poaching has escalated.

Mr. Hume says that's based on your records.

We accept that poaching is one of the factors that we need to consider,

but the department and none of its reports

accept that the way to deal with poaching immediately now

is by lifting the moratorium.

So the department accepts that the moratorium encourages poaching?

No, My Lord. The department does not accept that.

There are a number of factors that contribute to poaching

and the viability report accepts that the moratorium is one of them,

is one of those contributing factors.

The viability report does not find that it is the main one.

It does not find that it is the only one.

It does not find that it is the cause.

And if we do not do that now, the escalation of poaching continues.

No, My Lord. The reasons why there is continued poaching are complicated

and that is the department's version.

Would you say this is rational, really?

"I have been breeding rhinos for a very long time

and all of a sudden, I am very poor."

But the point is, there is an eco-tourism market and a hunting market

which enables them to capitalize their assets.

They say that they prefer not to allow hunting,

and that is a choice, not to exploit in a particular way.

If I understand you correctly, is that if you hunt,

you can sell to tourists and tourists can pack and go with the horns.

But then, we have brought 2,000 rhinos,

say, for example, for Mr. Hume,

down by one we have slaughtered.

And where is the preservation of the rhinos?

My Lords and My Lady, consider that for a moment, coldly and analytically,

the entire world and South African citizens

are hugely concerned about the preservation of this species.

It's on the brink of extinction, virtually.

We say we can't afford to defray the costs.

What does the Minister say?

"Well, you can garner some income by having them hunted."

It is actually quite sad

that the Environmental Minister can resort to an allegation,

in the midst of all people trying to preserve the species,

to an allegation that, yeah,

you can garner income by having them hunted. Killed.

If there were only ten left in the world, and Mr. Hume had those ten,

and he had raised the same argument,

would the Minister have said, "Well, hunt them, shoot them"?

Then we will be down to one and we will put that one in the museum.

It's, with respect, absurd.

Oh, my gosh.

- I got this one. - You got this one?

- Alright. I'm coming back. - You bet.

Justice for Cecil! Justice for Cecil!

Justice for Cecil!

They like to talk about the numbers, about conservation.

They're just greenwashing, basically, the fact that they enjoy killing.

And that's basically psychopathic behavior.

We're seeing a lot of progress for animals.

The change is coming. We're gonna put an end to this.

I'm actually a conservation hunter.

We're very conscientious about what we do hunt,

and we don't hunt any endangered species.

- Well, I'm against all hunting. - Just all hunting? No matter what?

- No matter the results or...? - All hunting.

From the conservationist's point of view,

the money that comes in from hunting in those areas

where those conservancies are is actually what's keeping them there.

Do you honestly think your money goes anywhere

except into someone's back pocket? You are breeding corruption.

We're going to go to the school that we paid for.

- We're going to go to the clinic... - So go build a school.

If you wanna build a school,

I'll shake your hand and build it with you, no problem.

Why do you have to shoot an animal?

I'm just saying, that's part of our industry. That's an off-shoot.

Murder is murder.

- No, it's not murder if it's an animal. - Yes, it is.

Did you murder a chicken that you had for lunch?

I don't eat meat, sweetheart.

- I'm vegan. I don't eat meat. - OK.

Cos I have regard for all species and all living, breathing things.

Shame on you! Cowards!

It's human nature to be empathetic with the individual,

and so the animal rights organizations,

that's their thinking, is the individual,

as if that's somehow gonna protect the entire area,

it's gonna protect the whole ecosystem, and it's not.

So they think in terms of Bambi or Simba or Fifi,

'cause we can see Fifi, we know Fifi,

and we send out photographs of Fifis to our donors.

Then that's great, OK?

But Fifi might be in the right middle place

and she's right in the most protected area

and you're ignoring everywhere else around the periphery.

And all people are cutting away

and they're felling forests and they're clearing land

and they're bringing their livestock right next to Fifi, and it all goes.

They're ignoring the fact that local people are being killed by lions

or being trampled by elephants. They're losing their crops.

That they do not share their value system.

If you cannot empathize with the local people,

then you're not gonna be successful in protecting them in the long term.

On the other hand, you have the hunters

who are convinced that where they operate,

they're the last bastion of support to protect these areas.

But to an animal welfare organization, no, no animal must die.

The reality of hunting is that, yes, there are a few places

where hunting does make a difference.

But in many areas, the economics don't add up.

They're not generating enough money, the land is being lost,

especially in the most corrupt countries.

We've seen that happen over and over in many parts of Africa,

where they go out and say, "Everything's fine."

No, it's not fine. Things are declining.

What we do is run the camp and kind of manage the ongoing management

of the anti-poaching in the area,

and we get a daily rate when foreign hunters come in to hunt here

which really subsidizes the money that I have to run my anti-poaching.

You can imagine all that dust and dirt and rain and...

Our firearms take a bit of a hammering.

That's why we like these AK actions. Good old AK.

Built in Israel. You can't really go wrong with it.

No, no.

We're fighting to save this for the community...

while people kill it.

It really is pretty weird.

We're fighting to save something so somebody else can kill it.

It just comes back to control...

Ethic, morals, sustainability.

You can assimilate the two, the poachers and the commercial hunters,

but the difference is, the poachers...

They shoot anything for their teeth, literally anything.

And they will shoot every last one that there is

because there's a commercial-driven desire for these teeth.

On the hunting side, if done correctly,

where there's a very carefully measured off-take...

I can live with that.

Killing every last animal, no, can't live with that, won't do that.

That's just wrong.

- You loaded up there, bro? - No.

You gotta load up. You never know what we can bump here.

- I'm not really after a buck. - OK.

Yeah, I mean...

You know what? We're gonna need bait, so...

We got three more places to bait.

But it's your call. You know, no pressure.

How much am I paying for the hippo for bait?

4,750.

- And how much for the buffalo? - 5,500.

OK.

- OK. - When you're ready, take it.

This is one of now probably 17 baits we've put up so far for Philip.

We've used hippo, zebra, impala,

and our biggest problem is they're rotting really quick.

They're only lasting two or three days,

so hopefully cats find us in the next two days while they're still fresh

and give us a bit of luck.

The Bible says he gave man dominion over all the animals.

And that dominion comes with responsibility,

but it also means it's the right to use.

And so I think that is a big part of it,

and it's a big part of appreciating God's creation.

And some people think, "Well, how can you go out and shoot God's creation?"

That's a totally false statement, false point of view.

God said we have dominion over the animals.

That means we can do what we choose with them.

It's a very powerful statement that's in the Bible.

- The nice broad-cut one. - You mean the ram?

Any one.

I think it does make it more special for me as a believer

to go out there and pursue these animals and know that God placed them.

When I put my hand on that lion, I can promise you...

at that moment, as with all of my life,

anybody that believes in evolution is a complete fool.

I just don't understand how people can't understand

that God raised that animal into existence.

It's a big lion. Massive. Look at the mane on him.

It's a big cat.

Wow!

Nice one. It's got a big head.

Fantastic cat, bro.

A thought came to mind as I was coming here

and beginning to feel the emotion and the anticipation of this big hunt.

You know, I've been a hunter my whole life.

They say I fell out of the hunting vehicle when I was two or three

and landed on my head. Maybe that's what's wrong with me sometimes.

And, you know, I lost my dad a few years ago and he was a hunter.

At the time, I was a little angry with him, the way he would treat me,

but he would do funny things to me to make me learn to hunt.

We'd be in a pick-up, and whether it was a rabbit or a deer, summer or winter,

we'd be driving along and he would see some game,

and all he would do is turn the engine off and sit there and not say a word.

And I would have to find the animal

and get out of the vehicle and go take a shot.

But, no, he challenged me.

My dad challenged me in many ways. That was just one way.

And I think that he would be really tickled

to be able to tell the people back home at the coffee shop,

and when I say coffee shop, I mean the Dairy Queen,

that his son is out hunting a lion.

I think if he was around, he would really get a big kick out of that.

It would be better if it was a little bit up.

Yeah. But it'll work, but if you can make it up a little bit.

Down just a bit. Up. Right there.

I wanna get his hair patterns right.

You wouldn't believe it, but hair patterns are very important.

It's not gonna look alive if it looks mangy.

I actually have nothing of myself. I've never kept a piece of work, ever.

One day I'll probably end up buying a skin from a zoo,

an animal that's, you know, expired

and creating my own little private museum.

Even if it's private, it's still something

that will preserve this when it's long gone,

which is inevitable with the way we carry on in this world.

People killing animals for the wrong reasons, i. e. poaching,

using them for completely irrational, what do you call it, illogical reasons,

like medicine that doesn't work, it's just a fantasy.

And besides that, the displacement of their natural habitat.

They've got nowhere else to go.

They come into conflict with people, they always come second.

So there's that too. Animals will end up one day behind cages,

like we have in zoos, but on a larger scale,

or just fantasies that people talk about.

"One day there were these animals."

So this might do justice to them at least,

or at least that's what I aim for. Cos if they do become extinct one day,

then it's something to show the world what they looked like.

There we go. Get the clear acrylic.

I really feel as if they know that they're in danger.

They know that they're not equipped to avoid extinction.

It is humans that have messed up their lives.

We are to blame.

And it makes me understand that I cannot give up.

Why should we save any species from extinction?

It's almost like, "Why should we breathe?"

It's because it's us. Surely we want our world to survive.

We want our world to be a better place.

Oh, my.

Ready?

Philip.

Fantastic, bud. An excellent, excellent shot.

My gosh.

Move.

He just laid down on the sticks, didn't he?

That was a good idea.

You don't want those to get a hold of you, I promise you that.

Those teeth are just absolutely magnificent.

What a mane. Look at that red. And the black.

Black on his ears.

Green eyes.

And he is an old, old male. Really a one of a kind.

I made the decision several months ago that I was coming to hunt lion,

and this is my trophy,

and there's not any bureaucrat that can take it away from me.

OK, Martin, can we set him up to take some pictures?

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