Namibians are unhappy over the hunting of a huge cheetah, believed to be the largest ever killed, Beeld reported on Tuesday.
Johan van der Westhuizen of Alberton killed the cheetah in a hunt in Khomas on April 22.
“I knew it was a big cat but I didn’t realise it would be a world record,” said Elaine Coetzee, a professional hunter from CEC safaris, who accompanied van der Westhuizen.
According to the International Safari Club, the cheetah was the biggest ever hunted worldwide.
Readers of the Namibian newspaper Republikein complained about it after a photograph appeared on the newspaper’s front page on October 27.
Coetzee said cheetahs were not threatened in Namibia.
“If we were not allowed to hunt cheetahs and leopards in an organised and legal manner — which gives them value — they will be exterminated by farmers because they are a big problem,” said Coetzee. — Sapa