This Morning ruffled the feathers of its viewers on Wednesday (May 4) when a trophy hunter was invited onto the show for a debate about killing animals. Olivia Opre appeared on the ITV programme live from Montana to defend trophy hunting - where wild animals are often hunted, killed and then photographed to represent the success of the hunter.
In a virtual interview Olivia openly told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that she has killed more than 100 endangered species, including lions and tigers, and stands by her view that there’s nothing wrong with game hunting - much to the dismay of This Morning viewers.
The debate came after news broke that a trophy hunter reportedly paid a $50,000 fee to shoot and kill one of Botswana’s biggest and oldest ‘tusker’ elephants and on the other side of the sofa, passionate conservationist Giles Clark argued that the act should be banned.
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Talking about the recent killing of the tusker elephant, Olivia said: "There is ways to do it in a tasteful way if you are going to post online but the thing is this is a really old bull well over aged 50 and passed his breeding years. He was on his own and not with a herd.
"He had wounds sustained by other bulls from fighting. He also had a bullet in him from potential conflict with humans or poachers."
Arguing her comments, Giles who is the director of The Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent said: "It's completely untrue to say that an old bull is not having an impact on the rest of the elephant society. We know they are incredibly emotionally intelligent animals. His sheer presence has an impact on all of the other elephant herds in that area, by removing him we could be causing some of the things Olivia said they are helping."
He then asked Olivia, 'do you know how many giant tusker elephants are left in Africa?' to which she replied, 'there's assumptions that there's anywhere from 24 to 28.'
"Two of those were killed last month alone in Botswana by trophy hunters," Giles added.
Holly Willoughby, who appeared to be visibly upset by the revelations, asked Olivia: "I'm so disconnected when I look at that picture I just feel complete and utter sadness. What joy does it bring you killing an animal like that?"
"You don't have to like the guy that is doing the hunt but you have to be grateful that he's spending the money to do so because of millions of dollars that are generated," Olivia responded.
Viewers were less than impressed with Olivia's comments and were quick to shame This Morning on Twitter for having her on the show and giving her airtime.
"Trophy hunting is barbaric and should be illegal! It makes my blood boil so much when folk like this thinks it’s perfectly fine to kill innocent animals!!! Shame on you this morning #ThisMorning," said one ITV viewer.
"i’m crying, it’s upset me so much," one viewer wrote.
"Shame on you #ThisMorning for giving this airtime," said another.
