Monday May 19
10:30pm

Tonight, LOUIS THEROUX investigates the elite world of well-heeled American hunters who pay top dollar for the ultimate luxury adventure experience: a chance to shoot big game in Africa. Lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, hippos, even rhinos are up for grabs for those with the right kind of money.

Defenders of hunting say it is a humane and necessary form of game management. Left to themselves, the animals will over-reproduce and starve. They’ll also tell you that nothing compares to the rush of being charged by two tons of angry hippo and then felling the animal with a well-aimed shot to the head. They say that hunting puts you in touch with your deepest, most primitive self. To make the experience more challenging, some prefer to hunt with a handgun or even a spear.

Critics call it cruel and barbaric – and certainly seeing a majestic, intelligent animal like an elephant get popped between the eyes and watching it fall to its knees while the hunting party whoop and high-five can be disturbing. Even the professional hunters who guide visiting hunting parties are sometimes ambivalent about the practise. Many game managers won’t hunt their own stock of wildlife because they form an attachment to the animals.

Along the way, Louis meets the mom bringing her seven-year-old along so he can bag his own springbok. And the CEO intent on bringing home the head of a hippopotamus. He also meets the evangelical hunting guide who compiles videos of his most spectacular kills and preaches a macho do-or-die gospel of selfactualization through hunting. In a more personal moment, Louis must decide whether or not he is willing to pull the trigger on some African wildlife.

Are the critics right? Is it barbaric? Or is hunting the essence of what it means to be human – no worse than buying a steak at a supermarket? Is big-game hunting a chance to tap back into our innermost natures in a world that has had the life sanitized out of it? Or just plain cruel?