Is trophy hunting a real sport?

One of the most confusing and least academically understood fields of the tourism industry at global level is ironically the lucrative and highly priced phenomenon of big game hunting which is often carried out as a means of recreational sport. Colloquially known variously as trophy hunting , sport hunting or safari hunting , the practice of big game hunting represents one of the fastest growing and perhaps most controversial aspects of both sport and income generating activities involving wildlife exploitation. The multi-billion-dollar industry, which is often targeted for criticism by animal rights groups that oppose killing of animals on moral grounds, is examined critically from a pro-hunting perspective. In a bid to establish whether trophy hunting qualifies as a true sport or not, the study unravels how human lust for money has reduced trophy hunting into a mafioso-like syndicate with little or no scruples for sporting and conservation principles which are essential ingredients to qualify hunting as a true sport. This study is therefore a milestone not only in putting together major principles upon which trophy hunting bases its claims as a sport, but also in unravelling secretive abuses of wildlife that deny trophy hunting the status of sport that its original hunting philosophers had envisaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]