'As you sow, so shall you reap' and 'Those who live by the sword, die by the sword' are two proverbs that seem to fit this man to the 'T'. He is the one who got eaten up by the very African wildlife that he used to kill to make a living.
This poetic justice was meted out to Scott van Zyl, who made a living by facilitating his wealthy clients in bagging wildlife trophies that included zebras, wildebeests, giraffes, elephants, leopards and even lions when he was killed and eaten by crocodiles.
The so-called "safaris" were actually hunting expeditions that Scott operated under the name of SS Pro Safaris with his captioned motto "Stop whining, go hunting". Scott used to attract moneyed customers, who were keen on hunting wildlife and could afford his steep price of $9,000, with the promise of killing up to seven different species.
Scott operated on the borders of nature preserves and invited customers to spend a week or more in these hunting lands. Although his website never posted the specific animal targets or the price for hunting them, it had photos of his client-hunters holding hunted animal trophies that included some rare species.
So, how did Scott actually die? According to BBC News, he disappeared while on a hunting safari on the banks of Limpopo River that lies on the Zimbabwe-South Africa border.
He was with a tracker and a pack of dogs. His objective was to find the locations of crocodiles along the river bank. For this, he and the tracker split up and went in different directions to search for crocodiles.
When, after considerable time, only Scott's dogs returned without him, a rescue operation was launched. The rescue team followed his footprints up to the river bank, where they found his abandoned rucksack. But no trace of him was found.
It was presumed that Scott must have been consumed by the crocodiles. So, permission was sought from the Zimbabwean authorities to kill three likely Nile crocodiles that infest the river.
The three crocodiles, suspected of consuming the hunter, were shot and one of them contained human remains. Later, DNA tests confirmed the grisly truth that it was indeed those of Scott. He left behind his wife and two children.
The hunter became the hunted and ended up in a croc's belly. Although this senseless death has been roundly condemned by all, a statement by One Green Planet sums it all, "[He] shouldn't have been hunting in the first place. Animals in the wild...are wild! They are living, thinking beings with instincts for survival."
