Animal

What is trophy hunting and why has Love Island’s Ollie Williams been accused of it?


Ollie has left the villa (Picture: ITV/REX)

Ollie Williams has left the Love Island villa, claiming he still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Laura Nofer.

Some ex Love Islanders are unconvinced of the reason behind his exit, with Olivia Attwood and Dom Lever saying he’s likely leaving because of the public backlash against him.

Many have reacted furiously to rumours of Ollie’s trophy hunting past, prompting an online petition and hundreds of Ofcom complaints.

An Ofcom spokesperson confirmed: ‘We’ve had 570 complaints about the inclusion of Ollie as a contestant in Love Island. This is across the three episodes that have aired.’

So, what is trophy hunting, and why has Ollie been accused of it?

What is trophy hunting?

Trophy hunting refers to the killing of an animal for sport or pleasure, and the subsequent display of its body as a trophy.

Often, hunters take photographs to prove they have carried out the slaughter.

In most cases, they seek out big game such as rhinos, elephants, lions or bears.

The online petition to remove Ollie had over 40,000 signatures (Picture: Change.org)

Why has Love Island’s Ollie Williams been accused of trophy hunting?

The accusations about Ollie’s hunting past started when The Sun obtained promotional images for his hunting business, where he was shown posing with dead animals.

In the now-deleted images, the 23-year-old director of Cornish Sporting Agency, is seen smiling next to a dead water buffalo, warthog and giant eland.

One picture was captioned: ‘You’ve gotta love it when you put your binos up and see a bull like this on the other end!’

The Cornish Sporting Agency – whose website is now offline –  offers clients, ‘a truly bespoke, personal shooting experience.’

A source close to Ollie denied that he engages with trophy hunting, saying ‘It is categorically untrue to suggest Ollie is involved in hunting for sport. Ollie is a passionate conservationist and worked with an anti-poaching unit in Mozambique.

‘Conservation is crucial to the survival of animals and as part of that work Ollie was involved in the culling of sick animals who were a threat to the health of the herd.

‘There is a very big and important difference between trophy hunting and the conversation work Ollie has previously been involved in.

‘At no point has Ollie organised or booked anybody to go to Africa to shoot game.’

Love Island airs every night at 9pm on ITV2. The Saturday episode is a catch-up show.

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