Warning: Graphic images
Sickening footage has surfaced on a man – if you can call him that – shooting a hammerhead shark to death at point-blank range.
The clip shows a man, who is covered wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap – point a small gun at the animal while stood at the side of a boat.
He then decides to fire two bullets into the shark and disgustingly laughs as he watches the creature bleed to death in the ocean.
The initial images are believed to have been posted onto Instagram under the profile name of ‘Alex_Kampo’ – a ‘fishing fanatic’ as he refers to himself with over 15k followers.
Russ Rector, an animal activist, was later given the video by the person he claims filmed the shooting.
He said:
My first reaction was how ridiculous it was and how cruel it was, quite frankly.
Mr Rector continued:
This was all done so they can videotape it and show it to their friends.
If you are going to kill a shark, you shoot it in the head – he fired shots into the gill, causing the shark to bleed out and suffocate.
This latest incident of animal cruelty comes on the back of another video where a shark is dragged to death by a speed boat.
Mr Rector believes the same people are responsible for causing both deaths of the two sharks and authorities with the Fish and Wildlife Commission have launched an investigation into them, reports the Daily Mail.
Rob Klepper, a spokesperson with the commission, said that the names of those involved with each incident have not been released in keeping with policy precedent.
The clips were later uploaded to the Internet, outraging social media viewers who immediately started a change.com petition which received over 2,000 signatures as of Friday.
The shark dragging incident caused a social media storm and even led to death threats being made against the star of a new MTV reality show who is allegedly friends with one of the men in the footage.
22-year-old Alex Kompothecras, who is a cast member of the show Siesta Key, was supposedly sent the video of his friend Michael Wenzel along with two other men dragging the shark by the fin at high speed last week.
He said to People:
I was, like, ‘Are you kidding me? I was absolutely horrified!
What the fuck is wrong with people – animal cruelty is not okay!
