Wealthy Brits are paying up to £25,000 to kill zebras, antelopes and even kangaroos on family breaks in the United States.
Hunters are flying out to southern Texas to hunt them with rifles, machine guns and even bows and arrows.
Staff at 18,000-acre Ox Ranch told the Daily Star Sunday the estate is visited by dozens of British hunters and their families who want to kill exotic species.
One ranch worker called Sonia told us: “Many come along and bring their children – we offer activities for the whole family.”
Customers can kill up to 60 different species that roam the site 50 miles from the border with Mexico.
One of the most expensive targets is the African bongo antelope. The spiral-horned beast is priced at £25,000 per animal.
Himalayan tahr – a goat with a bushy mane – is £5,500. An Arabian oryx is £7,000; a sitatunga antelope, £8,700; while a wildebeest is £11,000.
The company has a gallery showing hunters posing with corpses.
The website promises: “Ox Ranch has the zebra hunt you have been dreaming of!
“Humans have attempted and failed countless times throughout history to domesticate zebras.
“Their wild and untamable nature are the very traits that create such a rewarding and
challenging hunt.
“You may hunt our trophy zebra using any method you prefer, including spot and stalk, bow hunting, rifle hunting, pistol hunting, safari-style, or from a blind. All of our zebra hunts are a fair chase on over 18,000 acres of Texas hill country.”
The ranch’s website says hunters who wound animals are charged the same price as those who kill.
It says: “We will do our best to locate the animal but, unfortunately, there are no guarantees on wounded game.”
Ox Ranch is owned by 38-year-old Brett Oxley, who describes himself as a college drop-out. He bought it after selling an online hosting company and brags about killing an aoudad sheep from 937 yards with one shot.
He added: “It’s easy for people to call hunting evil, especially when they are ill-informed and don’t have to provide a viable alternative.
“We have hundreds of anti-hunters out a year, and very few if any leave with the notion that what we are doing is evil.”
But Ashley Byrne from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals hit back: “Hunting has absolutely nothing to do with conservation.
“What they’re doing is trying to put a better spin on a business that they know the average person finds despicable.”
This article was first published by The Daily Star on 30 January 2021. Lead Image: A family pose with a zebra (Image: Sean Rayment).
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