A Scottish farmer has caused outrage after posing for photographs with the the bodies of an elephant, water buffalo and other African animals that he had shot dead.

Ian Evans, of Wigtonshire in south-west Scotland, also killed antelope and zebra while on several trips to reserves in South Africa.

His daughter-in-law, Helen Winters, who posted these photos online, has also accused him of killing her family’s pet geese, the Daily Record reported.

Ms Winters wrote on Facebook that after taking her daughter to an English hospital for months of treatment following a horseriding accident, Mr Evans got rid of her five pet geese which she had kept for 10 years.

Mr Evans, 62, said he had shot the African animals as part of a sanctioned cull by the management of an animal reserve he visited.

He added the photos dated back as far as 2007.

Explaining the cull on comments on his website that he later deleted, Mr Evans wrote: “There are around 900 elephants in this reserve (expanding at seven per cent per year, which is unsustainable).

“All the meat from the cull is sold to fund community projects such as infrastructure, education of local children, community halls and other community buildings.

“The licence fees go to help the running and maintenance of the reserve. The cull is part of the management of the reserve.”

He added: “I just love Africa. I am in love with the enormous ecosystem that you can study.

“Yes, I was part of a cull. That’s explained in my statement. It was seven years ago.

“I went (to Africa) in 2014, but the pictures she is using are from 2009, 2007 and earlier. There was five years between the last one and the one before that.”

Mr Evans said he had not shot the geese, but admitted he “did away with them”.

“There was no one to look after them. They had the run of the place and the mess they made was incredible,” he said.

Harry Huyton, of the UK-based animal welfare group OneKind, said: “It beggars belief that anyone can derive any sort of pleasure from killing beautiful creatures and posing with their bodies.

“Trophy hunting is absolutely abhorrent and this individual should be ashamed of himself not only for killing these animals but then boasting about it afterwards.”

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