Why did the death of trophy hunter Ernie Dosio attract more online notice than all 158 comparable cases over the past 20 years?
LODI, California––Ernie Dosio, 75, described by Metro correspondent Jamie Pyatt, of Cape Town, South Africa, as “A millionaire U.S. big game hunter,” a longtime wine grape grower from Lodi, California, and “a mainstay in the Sacramento Safari Club,” was on April 17, 2026 “ambushed and killed by five elephants whilst hunting a small forest antelope,” Pyatt reported.
“Vast collection of exotic animal heads”
Dosio, “who owns a vast collection of exotic animal heads in trophy rooms back home,” Pyatt continued, “was trampled to death while on a hunt in the Lope area of Gabon,” during “a £30,000 stalk of a yellow backed duiker,” a deer-like animal with eight-inch horns, rarely topping 120 pounds.
Dosio’s death, though not especially unique in the annals of trophy hunting, made global headlines, from The New York Times to People to The Guardian to the San Francisco Chronicle, inspiring an unusual number of online cartoons and “served him right” commentary distributed via social media.
According to Pyatt, Dosio’s hunt “stumbled into a herd of five big elephant cows with a calf. The startled elephant herd immediately charged Dosio and his professional hunter. The elephants were so well hidden in the dense undergrowth they appeared ‘as if from nowhere’” and a professional guide with a high-powered rifle “was just flung aside.”
Dosio death paralleled that of Asher Watkins
The guide “was seriously injured and lost his gun in the thick bush as the elephants attacked the terrified hunter with just a shotgun who was then brutally trampled underfoot.
“‘Ernie had booked a hunt for dwarf forest buffalo and duikers, in particular the yellow backed duiker, and under strict licensing laws he could not take along his own guns,” Pyatt explained.
The 437,000 electronic media mentions of Ernie Dosio’s death by elephant posted within the next nine days dwarfed the 67,300 mentions generated over nearly nine months by reports of the August 3, 2025 death of fellow multi-millionaire trophy hunter Asher Watkins, 52, trampled by a Cape buffalo he was trying to stalk in Limpopo province, South Africa.
The Daily Mail reported the Watkins, a “ranch trader” from Texas, had paid “almost $10,000” to Coenraad Vermaak Safaris for the buffalo “hunt” on fenced land.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Schoeman van Jaarsveld
Also by way of comparison, the April 24, 2026 death by rhinoceros of rhino anti-poaching and security guard Schoeman van Jaarsveld, 58, at the Samara Karoo Reserve in Eastern Cape province attracted only 75,000 electronic media mentions over the next three days.
Van Jaarsveld, director of the Milk River Security company, was gored by a radio-collared black rhino “while conducting anti-poaching services on the reserve,” according to reports by the George Herald, and the tabloids The Sun and the Daily Mail.
The rhino was not harmed.
The 70,000-acre privately owned Samara Karoo Reserve, a high-end destination resort featuring wildlife viewing and photography safaris, was formed in 1997 when the owners bought out and combined several former hunting ranches.
Poachers
Deaths of poachers killed by the African wildlife they hunted appear to receive only passing notice. Three poachers killed by elephants and in one case also eaten by lions in Kruger National Park, South Africa, in 2019 and 2021, have cumulatively received only 3,400 media mentions to date.
Altogether, ANIMALS 24-7 has logged 158 cases of animals killing hunters and poachers worldwide since 2005, all of which together have received less notice than the death by elephant of Ernie Dosio.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Why has the Ernie Dosio case attracted so much more attention than any other?
Having checked out every comparable case and every hypothesis occurring to us, truthfully speaking ANIMALS 24-7 does not have a clue.
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Perhaps it is the cumulative amount of disgust for the arrogant killing of wildlife that is already under pressure from climate change, drought, human encroachment into the animals’ habitat, reaching a crescendo, in addition to NO ONE believing that these wanton killings have anything to do with conservation.
Whenever something like this happens, “poetic justice!” springs to mind.
Sharing with gratitude and celebrating! with no apology.
One can only repeat ‘Live by the sword, Die by the sword’. If this is the manner in which you wish to live and find pleasure or satisfaction in killing a noted large animal who is known to be dangerous if threatened , then so be it.
I join others who do not feel much sorrow in knowing that a killer has been killed. This is a person whom I would not have wished to have known personally despite his business acumen as I have been a lifelong animal advocate. His family might grieve his absence and that is understandable, but his was not a commendable person – and – so be it!
Perhaps it’s the absolute disgust people are feeling now that they are realizing how much the ultra-rich tend toward cruelty and violence.