Huntress posing with giraffe heart

What did you get for Valentine’s Day? Flowers? Chocolate hearts?  The  South African Merelize Van Der Merwe received a real heart from a real giraffe. For this, the hobby hunter has now received a lot of criticism.

 The  32-year-old killed the giraffe and then posed with the animal’s heart.

Husband gives wife a giraffe hunt

“Have you ever wondered how big a giraffe’s heart is?”, Merelize Van Der Merwe asked her Facebook community on Valentine’s Day. Even if very few have asked themselves such a question before, it will be answered immediately in the same post. D.hen the hobby hunter poses in it with a giraffe heart. She had previously killed the animal herself.

 The  hunt was a Valentine’s Day present from her husband. He spent almost 2,000 euros so that his wife could go giraffe hunting in a park in South Africa. For Van Der Merwe the fulfillment of a long-standing dream, for animal lovers it is an absolute cruelty.

 The re are numerous angry and shocked comments under her Facebook post. “That is sick. And it gets even sicker because she is so proud of it, ”it says.

Favor for the wildlife

Opposite the British newspaper “Mirror”, the slayer defends her actions. She argues that she saved other endangered animals in South Africa by killing the elderly bull giraffe. D.he 32-year-old started hunting at the age of five and has already killed up to 500 animals, including lions, leopards and elephants. Van der Merwe claims that she was doing the wildlife a favor by shooting down. In addition, their hunt would have created “eleven jobs” and “plenty of meat for the locals” that day. “If you forbid hunting, animals become worthless and disappear. Hunting saved many species from extinction.

 The  only ones who protect such animals are trophy hunters, ”she claims to the“ Mirror ”.