下手なゾウ狩り動画流出、全米ライフル協会トップに嘲笑と非難

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】「全米ライフル協会（ＮＲＡ）」のウェイン・ラピエール最高経営責任者（ＣＥＯ）が２０１３年にアフリカのボツワナでゾウ狩りをした際の動画が報じられ、その未熟な腕前が嘲笑を買っている。（写真は全米ライフル協会のウェイン・ラピエール氏）
　報道した米誌ニューヨーカーによると、ＮＲＡのドキュメンタリー制作のために撮影された動画だが「広報上の大失態になりかねないという懸念から」公開されなかったものだという。
　動画の中でラピエール氏は最初の一発でゾウに傷を負わせ、続いて至近距離から３回撃ったが、とどめを刺すことができず、最後は狩猟ガイドがゾウを撃ち殺した。動画にはラピエール氏の妻スーザンさんが、別のゾウを撃ち殺して尻尾を切り落とし「勝利！」と叫ぶ場面もあった。
　米生物多様性センターのターニャ・サネリブ国際法務部長はこの動画についての発表で、「この美しい生き物をラピエール氏が残忍に、不器用に殺しているのを見るのは気分が悪い」と非難し、「いかなる動物もこのように苦しむべきではない」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/04/30-14:02）

Already facing legal problems, Wayne LaPierre, the head of the US National Rifle Association, is now facing ridicule for clumsily hunting an elephant in Botswana.
Video of the 2013 hunt was published by The New Yorker and The Trace.
It was taken for an NRA documentary but was never aired, The New Yorker said, because of concerns that it could turn into a public-relations fiasco.
In the video, LaPierre wounds an elephant with his first shot.
He then shoots it three more times at point-blank range but hits it in the wrong place.
A hunting guide finally fires the shot that dispatches the elephant.
The footage also shows LaPierre's wife, Susan, killing an elephant, cutting off its tail and shouting Victory!
Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action, tweeted about the video.
CEO Wayne LaPierre manages to alienate both hunters and gun owners because not only is this inhumane, but he's a horrible shot, Watts said.
Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it was sickening to see LaPierre's brutal, clumsy slaughter of this beautiful creature.
No animal should suffer like this, Sanerib said in a statement.
Savannah elephants were just declared endangered by international experts, and these intelligent beings certainly shouldn't be used as paper targets by an inept marksman.
The NRA filed for bankruptcy in Texas in January of this year after being sued by the New York state attorney general, who accused its leaders of misusing funds.