Hossein Golabchi, a prolific US trophy hunter, has angered thousands after posting pictures of himself online posing with a rare snow leopard draped over his shoulders .
Facing the camera front on, Golabchi haughtily grins into the camera, holding up his “trophy” which appears to have been shot twice in the back legs
A petition with almost 107,000 signatures circulating online, calling for Golabchi to be brought to justice.
The petition was created by Amanda, from Tera International (Tiger Exotic Animal Ranger Awareness) and launched on 23 October, which was also International Snow Leopard Day.
Snow Leopard’s are an endangered species with little more than 7,000 left in the wild.
The petition read:
“There’s nowhere in the entire Western hemisphere (and the rest of the world) that allows anyone to go into Central Asia to ‘trophy hunt’ a snow leopard.”
“This long-time and prolific trophy hunter of rare cats must be made an example of or these magnificent cats will vanish forever.”
The news comes just months after Cecil the lion’s son Xanda was shot and killed by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe. He was shot and killed after roaming outside the protected area of the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe – very close to where Cecil was killed with a bow and arrow in 2015.
The headless body of Cecil, the 13-year-old star attraction of Zimbabwe’s Hwange national park, was found July 27, 2015 and it is believed he had been lured out of the park, where it would have been illegal to hunt him, using a freshly killed animal as bait – a common technique among hunters can “legally” kill protected lions.
Many conservation groups are working tirelessly to address the issue, but sadly these things often take time – time that snow leopards just don’t have.
