He may be a nice guy in person, but it’s his actions that I take issue with. With regards to wounded buffalo he:
1: refrains from taking follow up/ finishing shots when presented;
2: under the absurd principal of allowing the buffalo to “choose how he is going to die”
3: for the purpose of inviting the buffalo to charge.
4: which results in prolonged suffering for the animal and unnecessary risk for the hunters.
"We can shoot him right now or we can let that Buffalo decide how it's gone die"
These are not my morals, nor the morals of 99% of the hunting community. It’s sad that Heym would associate with him
I understand that hunting with Mark is not for everybody. And for several years before I actually got to know the man himself, my opinion of him was nothing but negative. After I got to know Mark better, I started rewatching his films with an analytical eye.
The numbers are below:
The total number of charges filmed in 16 years is only 14. The total times Mark killed the animal rather than the client is two, and the number of unprovoked hippo charges five out of six (the one hippo bull which was provoked into charging, had sand kicked at him but Mark never wounded him) and the number of buffalo charges is a total of eight. That’s nowhere as much as people claim. I can actually do a breakdown of the films to illustrate my point. And those who’ve actually hunted with Mark, couldn’t be happier with his services.
Look, I understand that he might not always be perfectly morally scrupulous in terms of the way he hunts (who amongst us always has been?). But I also find that a lot of the stories about Mark are grossly exaggerated. Some of the most hilarious ones are:
1) He shoots Cape buffalo in the genitals with a .22LR in order to provoke charges (I wonder what kind of drugs the originator of this rumor was was on, when he perpetuated it).
2) He once shot 20 Cape buffalo illegally in Tanzania to get the perfect video footage of a charging Cape buffalo (imagine even getting away with something with that without the authorities finding out).
3) That his “Psychotic” behavior resulted in a divorce (while in reality, he and Kathy have been happily married for over 50 years and she helped him start Nitro Express Safaris).
Again, Yes. His words like “Going into battle” or “That buffalo is going to choose how he will die” are often considered inappropriate by many other hunters. But the truth is that they’re just dramatic words. Mark himself frequently finds it hilarious why other people take his words so seriously, when he himself doesn’t.
