A big game hunter from Italy has died after slipping on ice and falling over a 100ft cliff to his death during a hunt in Italy’s Colle delle Oche. Luciano Ponzetto was a veterinarian from Italy who drew the ire of conservationists all across the world after becoming a quasi-famous big game hunter.
Sharing pictures of a male lion he’d shot, a leopard, another other big game pissed off enough people to garner him death threats on social media (I’m sure the irony was lost on the people sending threats).
Many argued that his job as a veterinarian tasked with protecting animals and saving their lives was in direct conflict with this life as a big game hunter. But Luciano Ponzetto repeatedly claimed he could hunt and be a veterinarian without conflicting loyalties, stating ‘a vet not incompatible with hunting, either morally or professionally’.
His body was recovered by helicopter but he was pronounced dead on the spot, and death was believed to have been instant.
Luciano Ponzetto first became famous after a photo of him hunting big game was recognized on an Italian Facebook group ‘Safari Italian Chapter’ ran by a Safari outfit based in Tanzania. After the photograph went viral, Luciano’s veterinary practice outside of Turin, Italy came under fire as did his life on social media, culminating in him receiving multiple death threats.