Sleeping lion hunter unmasked
American Guy Gorney remains unremorseful in the face of international anger.
Credit: Twitter
The trophy hunter who stirred outrage with a video of himself killing a sleeping lion has been named as retired American energy company executive Guy Gorney.
Gorney is seen celebrating with Mark Vallaro, a professional hunter in Zimbabwe who was acting as his guide. Despite the animal lying motionless in the sun, it takes Gorney three shots to kill it while it writhes in agony. Vallaro is then heard telling Gorney to stop shooting and says: “That, Mr Gorney, is a very nice lion. A very nice lion.”
Gorney, 64, has been vilified for his actions, with comic Ricky Gervais, an outspoken critic of trophy hunting, calling him a “snivelling sadistic coward” in a tweet.
Gorney lives in a five-bedroom home in Manhattan, Illinois, a wealthy village 50 miles southwest of Chicago, and when he was visited there by the Daily Mail, he was apparently uninterested in speaking about the 8-year-old video.
“Private property,” he said. “Take off!” Before he then shut the door.
Gorney’s private Facebook page was littered with photos of his kills, and he boasted there that he had killed all of the big five – whether they were all sleeping at the time is not known. He has subsequently deactivated the page, but the photos can still be found online.
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