Exmoor, U.K.
Largest beast shot: Britain’s largest known wild animal, a 9-foot-tall red stag, has been shot dead less than a month after it was discovered. “Growing that big and that huge and that magnificent, he was a definite target,” said Richard Austin, the photographer whose images of the stag appeared in newspapers just a few weeks ago. “With a set of antlers such as this deer had, it was basically going to kill him in the end.” Austin deliberately did not reveal the location of the stag, dubbed “the Emperor of Exmoor,” for fear that hunters would target it; apparently a hunter found it anyway. The identity of the hunter is unknown. News of the stag’s death sparked a wave of outraged letters in the British press this week.
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