The American millionaire who enjoys hunting recently tragically passed away in South Africa while on a hunting expedition. He was fatally attacked by a buffalo he had been tracking, while the buffalo itself remained unharmed.
According to a report by The Guardian, the company responsible for organizing this hunting trip, Coenraad and Vermaak Safari, stated in a press release that the 52-year-old man named Asher Watkins was tracking a 1.3-ton African buffalo in the Limpopo province of South Africa on August 3 when he was unexpectedly ambushed and killed.
The company provided a statement to The Daily Mail, saying, “With heavy hearts, we confirm the unfortunate passing of our client and friend, Asher Watkins, from the United States.”
They further expressed, “This is a deeply saddening event. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones during this extremely difficult time.” The company is working diligently to support his family in handling the aftermath of this tragedy.
As Watkins, along with their professional hunter and a tracker, was pursuing the African buffalo, the buffalo suddenly charged at him at a speed of approximately 35 miles per hour, resulting in fatal injuries that led to his death.
The company cautioned about the dangers of African buffaloes, stating, “There is no species on Earth more fearsome than the African buffalo,” as they cause several deaths and injuries to hunters annually.
Watkins was a local of Texas and a graduate of Baylor University. He was the head of the Watkins Ranch Group, a successful brokerage firm involved in trading ranches worth millions of dollars in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
His company described him as someone who spent most of his life outdoors and on ranches and a proud father who deeply loved his family.
The animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), mentioned on their website that Watkins was a frequent hunter and often displayed on social media photos of himself posing with the carcasses of animals he hunted, including mountain lions, deer, ducks, and hundreds of others.
PETA claimed that the African buffalo resorted to desperate measures to survive when Watkins was tracking it.
They emphasized that African buffaloes are complex animals that communicate with each other, establish social hierarchies, and even “vote” to decide on the herd’s migration. However, hunters view them merely as trophies to be mounted on walls. Animals killed by hunters typically undergo prolonged and agonizing deaths.
Similar incidents of individuals meeting a tragic end due to hunting, like Watkins, have occurred previously in Zimbabwe.
Earlier reports from Epoch Times have covered the case of Theunis Botha, a professional hunter from South Africa. Since 1983, he had been running a company guiding clients on hunting trips. In 2017, while hunting elephants in Zimbabwe, a fallen elephant fatally crushed him.