Photos of a Swedish nationalist posing with dead lions, giraffes and hippos he killed and ate have outraged social media. Speaking to Swedish media on World Giraffe Day, he said the tastiest meat he had ever tried was giraffe, a remark that horrified users.
Angelo Vukasovic, the treasurer from the Sweden Democrats party, considered nationalist and far right, has been posting the controversial photos on Facebook since October 2015. However, the pictures have only started circulating widely in recent weeks.
Speaking to the Swedish Aftonbladet newspaper, Vukasovic said he took the photos during trips to South Africa where hunting is legal.
“I’ve eaten 80 percent of the animals I’ve killed, including the lion in the picture,” he said. “The tastiest meat I’ve ever eaten, and will ever eat, is giraffe.” The controversial statement was made on World Giraffe Day, which is celebrated annually on June 21.
In one of the pictures, Vukasovic and his friend are seen posing with a dead giraffe.
Another – picturing a delighted Vukasovic and a dead lion - was deleted from his Facebook account, but social media users managed to make screenshots.
However, he left the one with cooked lion meat. In the photo caption he writes “lion meat tastes really good.” His Facebook friends, apparently admirers of lion and giraffe meat, liked the pictures, and even wrote: “Nice trophy” and “it must be delicious.”
Vukasovic runs a hunting shop in the town of Nybro in southeastern Sweden. He says: “Hunting certain animals benefits people and benefits the animal. Previously rhino hunting was banned, and now suddenly they’ve permitted it and there’s a reason for that," he told Aftonbladet.
On Tuesday, the Sweden Democrats party said they were looking into the incident and will decide whether to take action against Vukasovic, the Local reported.
Social media were not so tolerant towards the giraffe and lion meat gourmet. Users called him a murderer and a “disgrace to Sweden.”
“You do not have the right to kill these precious, few, and magnificent creatures,” one user wrote under the photo of the dead giraffe, while another added: “Nice job, a**hole! That's for helping destroy our natural world!”