On World Giraffe Day, hunter Angelo Vukasovic claims 'tastiest meat I've ever eaten is giraffe'

It was World Giraffe Day on Tuesday, and as animal activists tried to raise awareness about the animal, it was Angelo Vukasovic, the treasurer of the Sweden Democrats Party in Nybro, who made headlines. Photos of the political worker hunting lions, giraffes and zebras went viral, as did his statement that giraffe meat was the tastiest he had eaten. According to the Daily Mail, Vukasovic apparently told Aftonbladet, a Swedish publication, “I’ve eaten 80 percent of the animals I’ve killed, including the lion in the picture. The tastiest meat I’ve ever eaten, and will ever eat, is giraffe.” His statement and photos drew widespread criticism on social media with commenters referring to him as “moron”, “bloody caveman” and “a disgrace to Sweden”. [caption id=“attachment_2848136” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Angelo Vukasovic. Image courtesy: Facebook/Angelo Vukasovic[/caption] However, according to The Local, Vukasovic told Aftonbladet that the hunts, which took place in South Africa, were perfectly legal. The Local also reported that Vukasovic’s party, the Sweden Democrats, will decide whether any action needs to be taken after it looks into the matter. Vukasovic’s photos are not the first to cause controversy over the hunting of animals. In late 2015, American dentist Walter Palmer was forced to shut his practice after it came to light that he had killed famous lion Cecil in the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe during a hunt. Cecil was a fixture in the vast Hwange National Park and had been fitted with a GPS collar as part of Oxford University lion research. Cecil’s death caused global outrage but Zimbabwe refused to charge Palmer with any crime (two others, however, are being prosecuted). The killing was legal, the government said, because Palmer had the right permits when he shot Cecil with a bow and arrow outside the park. He later said in an interview, “If I had known this lion had a name and was important to the country or a study obviously I wouldn’t have taken it. Nobody in our hunting party knew before or after the name of this lion.” In October 2015, it was revealed that a German hunter had shot and killed one of the biggest bull elephants seen in Zimbabwe in three decades. The kill took place outside Gonarezhou National Park, in the south of the country, said Louis Muller, chairman of the Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association. The elephant had rarely been seen until it was killed this month, Muller said. It was believed to be more than 40 years old, with tusks that weighed 55 kgs (121 pounds) each, the biggest recorded in Zimbabwe in 30 years, he said. With inputs from agencies