Elephant Killer Identified After PETA Germany Reward Offer

Group Calls On Authorities to Prevent Rainer Schorr From Importing Trophy Tusks

For Immediate Release:
October 20, 2015

Contact:
Lakisha Ridley 202-483-7382

The German man who gunned down an elephant believed to be the largest killed in Africa in 30 years has been identified. Following PETA Germany’s announcement of a €1,000 reward (approximately US $1,100) for confirmation of the hunter’s identity, multiple sources have reported that the man is Rainer Schorr, the CEO of a Berlin-based investment and real estate company.

PETA Germany is calling on German authorities to bar Schorr from importing the 120-pound elephant tusks that he reportedly took as a trophy. The group and more than 30,000 of its supporters have also called for a general ban on the importation of hunting trophies.

“This cowardly, miserable trophy hunter thought he could get away with gunning down a majestic elephant, posing with his corpse, and concealing these despicable actions from the public,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling for a ban on importing the grisly trophies of psychotic men like Rainer Schorr and the lion-killing dentist Walter Palmer, who kill for a thrill and a chunk of an animal’s carcass to display on their walls.”

PETA Germany isn’t alone in seeking a ban on hunting imports. In the wake of the global outrage sparked by Palmer’s similar trophy hunt in Zimbabwe, during which the Minnesota dentist shot Cecil the lion with a high-powered crossbow and left him to suffer with a steel arrow through his body for more than 40 hours, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—has called on the U.S. government to ban the import of hunting trophies.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.