A Polish businessman who sued a specialist travel agency after it failed to lay on elephants for him to shoot on safari lost his case yesterday in a court in Poznan, western Poland.

Waldemar I. (name withheld under Polish privacy law), hired German-based firm Jaworski Jagreisen to arrange a shooting safari in Zimbabwe. When he got there, however, the plains of that part of Africa were elephant-free zones and he returned home empty handed.

Without a pair of tusks as a trophy, he decided to sue the travel company, claiming that he had not seen any elephants in the area.

However, the judge was not swayed by the plaintiff's plight.

“The fact that elephants were not encountered during the hunt does not testify that elephants were not there,” the judge surmised, philosophically.

“It is not the case […] that hunters always finish their hunt in success,” he added.

Waldemar I. will have to pay over 2400 zl (600 euros) in legal costs.

It is estimated that there are around 60,000 elephants in Zimbabwe and they can be hunted in controlled areas where herds are deemed too large. A ten-day safari can set back the hunting-and-shooting tourist up to 8,000 USD. (nh/pg)

Source PAP