Pero Jelinić, a 75-year-old Croatian hunter, was shot dead over the weekend in South Africa on a lion trophy hunting expedition. Today, more details emerge about the hunter’s life.
Pero Jelinić, the Croatian citizen killed by unknown assailants on Saturday while hunting lions in South Africa, was a well-known and passionate hunter from Pag, a longtime member of the local hunting club Kamenjarka, and owner of the hotel-restaurant Biser, reports Jutarnji List on January 29, 2018.
The news of his death shocked all his friends and colleagues on Saturday, including Slavko Pernar, a longtime friend who was in contact with him earlier this month. For a long time, he says, he planned to crown his rich hunting career with the trophy of the lion, but instead, it would be the hunt to end his life.
Jelinić arrived on the island of Pag in the seventies to convey his experience in the hotel business which he acquired in Bonn, said Pernar. The hunters in the area had welcomed him warmly then, assisting him with finding work at a family home – and amongst everyone, he was a favorite, writes 057.
“He was a passionate hunter of big and small game, and in search of that, he traveled most of the world. For the past year he had leased his hotel just to dedicate himself to the things he planned to accomplish and enjoyed a deserved retirement. He, unfortunately, received the ugliest end – he died doing what he loved,” Pernar said, visibly hit by the message from the South African Republic.
Jelinić was extremely vibrant for his age, and he faced no problems traveling to Africa to hunt at the age of 75. Such a journey, Pernar says, usually lasts seven to nine days.
“His office, a hunting hall, was full of trophies, deer and bear specimens and everything that could be hunted in Croatia and Europe. In this room he received friends, we will all miss him,” Pernar concluded.
Translated from Jutarnji List
