It's why I've come to feel such sorrow over the events following the death of Theunis Botha. Amid all the carnage inflicted over the past seven days, you may have missed the news about the passing of this 51-year-old former South African soldier with five children. That's not such a bad thing. It means you also escaped the embarrassing celebrations that accompanied his demise.

Botha was a leading big-game hunter who had been taking high-paying tourists on legal hunts for more than three decades. Last Friday, near a small village in western Zimbabwe, his touring party came across a group of elephants that began to charge at them. Botha fired as they attacked. But one elephant managed to get close enough to hoist him with its trunk. That elephant was then shot by another hunter and, as it fell, it took Botha with it, crushing him. As news began to emerge about the death of such a prominent hunter, animal rights activists around the world began a frenetic victory dance, joyously celebrating Botha's demise at the hands of “his enemy” with a string of abusive postings on social media, some of them plastered across his Facebook site so his wife and children could view them. Oh, it was hard to work out where delight took over from the hate and bile.

Once again, the moral flaw at the heart of the beliefs of extreme animal liberators was exposed. It's the same misguided value system displayed whenever someone is taken by a shark in our waters. Rather than control the number of predatory Great Whites – a protected species for the past 20 years whose numbers have been growing in the past decade – we are subjected to sanctimonious lectures about how we humans have invaded their territory and should stay out of their way. It's a moral compass tipping wildly out of kilter. 

What other species on the planet places another member of the animal kingdom on equal or higher footing? What other species boasts members that apologise for its advances and triumphs?

It's easy to understand why so many of us oppose the hunting and killing of elephants. Almost all of us feel no urge – or even comprehend – the desire to take a weapon and end their lives. But there are many areas in southern Africa where hunting these animals is controlled, because they destroy the crops of some of the poorest people on the planet and also provide a boost to the tourist economy. Most of us understand this. Then again, we are prone to silly old human traits like being … practical.

The problem for animal extremists is where they can possibly draw the line. Why reserve your hatred and bile for game hunters when you ignore the latest kangaroo cull or the introduction of another virus to wipe out rabbit populations? It's why extremists still swat mosquitoes without considering the pain they may inflict because we don't anthropomorphise insects. 

So pack up your outrage and your breathtaking hypocrisy. Once again, you extremists have exposed your lack of human empathy. Little wonder you find comfort in the animal world. You're a bloody embarrassment when it comes to your own species.

Garry Linnell is a broadcaster.