The family of a big game hunter killed by an elephant herd is breaking their silence. The hunter died after an elephant herd charged him while he was in Gabon.
Speaking with The Daily Mail, the hunter's family said they had to struggle with not getting accurate information.
"The day it happened, we heard it was buffalo — and different crazy things," Rinda Butler Dosio, Ernie's ex-wife, told the outlet. "The lawyers got called before the family. There's just some things that just don't make sense. It's a huge shock. He was a big-time hunter, and it shouldn't have happened. He and another man [were] killed."
Big Game Hunter Killed by Elephant
The big game hunter was on a hunting trip with Safari operator Collect Africa. That's when an elephant herd charged them in the Lope-Okanda rainforest. The guide survived the encounter, but Ernie did not. He was an accomplished big game hunter having killed various animals over the years.
Following his death, his son, Jeff Dosio, feels the narrative around his father has been twisted. He said he hasn't enjoyed seeing all of the comments and focus in the news on his father's extracurricular activites rather than the tragedy of his death. It's just not right, according to the family.
"It hasn't been fun. It hasn't been fun at all. Whoever got all these pictures of our trophy room — I don't know how that came about at all," Jeff said.
Meanwhile, a friend also defended the big game hunter. He said that Ernie's "hunts were strictly licensed and above board and were registered as conservation in culling animal numbers." So it's not like the slain hunter was a poacher or did anything illegal. He always worked within the law.
He's not the first death from a charging elephant.
