What drives a person to celebrate the death of an animal?
In Mainlining on Heroin, Eduardo Gonçalves pulls back the curtain on a world most of us would rather not see — a world where killing is marketed as sport, where hunters boast about blood and trophies, and where the thrill of the kill becomes an addiction.
This book profiles 100 British trophy hunters and CEOs of hunting companies, letting them speak in their own words. The result is raw, brutal, and impossible to ignore.
A chilling chorus of confessions
Reading the hunters’ testimonies, a pattern emerges: obsession, escalation, and casual cruelty. They don’t describe isolated incidents. They describe sprees — repeated, routine, often celebratory acts of violence. Their language ranges from clinical precision to giddy pride:
- “I took a neck shot at about 280 yards and dropped it on the spot!”
- “We have some very very big lions.”
- “The trophies hang on my wall at home. Each one has a story which I cherish.”
- “We grab a few beers and have fun shooting the monkeys!”
- “My wife shot the donkey for the lion. She’s pretty hooked now!”
- “It’s like mainlining on heroin!”
These aren’t isolated soundbites; they’re symptoms. Gonçalves shows how killing becomes normalized, how trophy rooms replace empathy, and how people rationalise brutality as “fun,” “tradition,” or “passion.”
Not just gore — the mechanics of an industry
Mainlining on Heroin is more than a catalogue of shocking quotes. It’s an investigation into the systems that enable and profit from this behaviour: the hunting companies organising family “breaks,” the fenced hunts packaged as trophies, and the market that turns body parts into home decor and status symbols (“The elephant feet have been turned into umbrella stands,” one hunter brags).
You learn how hunters boast about methods, record their “world records,” and even teach children to view trophies as heirlooms. Gonçalves exposes the scale, the supply chains, and the casual callousness that let this industry thrive.
Why this matters
This book isn’t for the faint-hearted. But if you care about wildlife, conservation, or how cruelty gets institutionalised, it’s essential reading. The testimonies Gonçalves gathers show that trophy hunting is not intermittent or fringe — for many, it’s a compulsion dressed up as recreation. Understanding that mindset is a key step towards effective campaigning, policy change, and, ultimately, protection for animals.
Read it to understand — or to act
Whether you’re a concerned citizen, an activist, or simply someone who wants to understand how and why this trade persists, Mainlining on Heroin provides the evidence, the voices, and the horror that demands attention.
👉 Buy Mainlining on Heroin on Amazon now — read the testimonies, see the evidence, and decide what you’ll do next.
