Elephant Shot Repeatedly by NRA Chief, Endures Agonizing Death for a ‘Trophy’—Take Action Now!

BREAKING: Newly surfaced video footage shows National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre repeatedly shooting and failing to kill an African bush elephant (an endangered species) as the dying animal rumbles in distress or to warn others—until someone else finally takes over to make the fatal shot.

Evoking memories of the footage that PETA exposed last year of a Los Angeles–area man gunning down a young elephant in South Africa, LaPierre and his wife, (Susan) reportedly traveled to Botswana in 2013 to foster their sadistic urge to kill, this time with elephants in their sights. During LaPierre’s failed attempt at a kill, Susan can be seen standing by, laughing at the moaning elephant. While a visibly flustered and trigger-happy LaPierre continually misses his mark, a guide can be heard muttering to the NRA chief, “I’m not sure where you’re shooting.” At the guide’s insistence, another hunter ultimately delivered the shot that killed the animal.

“Where are you telling me to shoot?” a frustrated LaPierre asks his guide after multiple failed attempts to shoot and kill the elephant.

Susan—who was “projecting her image for the N.R.A.” during the trip—shot an elephant, too, actually killing him. “That was awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome,” she reportedly said. According to The New Yorker, Susan gave the dead elephant a pat and called him a “[b]eautiful animal” and a “good old guy” before cutting off his tail with her knife, holding both up in the air and laughing. She reportedly had both elephants’ feet shipped to the U.S. (to be used “stools” to display in her and her husband’s home) but changed the name on the shipping labels to avoid negative attention.

A smiling Susan LaPierre—wife of National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre—stands with the tail of an elephant she just killed in one hand and the knife she used to saw it off in the other.

Crew from the NRA-sponsored show “Under Wild Skies” traveled with the couple, reportedly shooting footage that was meant to make the gun organization more favorable among hunters, which many of its donors are. But the footage never aired—there were concerns that LaPierre’s apparently terrible aim and the vulnerable elephant’s slow, agonizing death would draw condemnation, not commendation. Eight years later, the concerns proved valid.

This video is further proof that behind the NRA’s macho posturing are scared little cowards who pay tens of thousands of dollars for someone else to track elephants so that they can shoot them ineptly at close range.

This elephant died horrifically so that LaPierre could have the animal’s feet hacked off and shipped to the U.S. under someone else’s name in order to be made into “trophies.” We know this is unacceptable, and we need lawmakers to refuse to tolerate such heinousness.

Join PETA in urging every member of Congress to watch this video, condemn the murder of animals for their body parts by trophy addicts, and reject NRA money!

Use the form below to send a polite e-mail to your members of Congress, urging them to distance themselves from the NRA and “trophy” hunting as a whole.

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