With respect you're not a hunter then either if you don't understand it or choose not to learn. You can choose to shoot "meat does" and feel good about it, but all "trophy" hunting is, is hyper-selective hunting. Guys that generally have done so much hunting their interests have focused on prime mature examples. They love the challenge and see little interest in driving logging roads to fill the freezer and heading home that night. To use cars as an example, from hondas to finding once in a lifetime classics. If you don't view a guy who spends up to two weeks sitting in pounding rain looking for a particular bear, having a legal male bear in front of him at under eighty yards for twenty minutes but not pulling the trigger as the bear still had many years left and time to grow, then respectfully you don't know what hunting is and I'm not surprised you're unable to define a very selective hunter as one. I just guided that guy, the selective hunter, and the bear scenario was real. He'd also passed on other bears elsewhere, that is as true of hunting as it gets, equally worthy of respect as the freezer filler. I actually see and admire the effort and restraint as something impressive.
Thank You for stating your (my) views so eloquently!
This guy that died in the elephant incident comes from a world few here have visited or will understand. Elephants are in trouble, yes, but not everywhere, many places there are too many and they're pounding out and beating dry their habitat. Hunting serves a critical role in maintaining the health of populations and areas, and without hunting income the herds are poached out completely and replaced with cattle. YouTube "Trophy Hunting by College Humor", it'll spell it out in your language. Some college age typical anti crowd folks looked into African trophy hunting and discovered it's actually a good thing. But folks that have made their mind up like Dilligaf that they know better are unlikely to go to the effort. Sad day for this guy's five kids, and seems they may not have even been hunting elephant at the time, just bad luck. I've walked here, and elephants are not to be trifled with, he went out with his boots on doing something a lot more impressive for a living than most.