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Will Harry's ‘Very Bloody’ Shooting Weekend Appall Animal Lover Meghan Markle?

The prince has been indulging his love of shooting again. How will his animal-loving new girlfriend take the news?

Prince Harry snuck off to a Bavarian castle for a “very bloody” weekend of wild boar shooting with a European prince known in hunting circles as “the Boar Terminator” owing to his prowess with a rifle, just days before his new girlfriend, and animal-rights advocate, Meghan Markle, arrived in London.

The trip is likely to appall Meghan, a passionate defender of animal rights whose dogs, Bogart and Guy, were rescued from an animal shelter in Los Angeles.

“My home of Los Angeles County puts down more dogs per capita than any other city in the U.S.,” she said at the time. “So rescuing was a no-brainer.”

News of the trip emerged Monday morning, just hours after Harry was spotted dropping off the Suits star at Heathrow airport for a flight, meaning he will likely be spending Christmas without her, as The Daily Beast reported last week.

Harry is expected to join senior royals for traditional celebrations at the queen’s country estate in Norfolk.

Meghan was smiling as, accompanied by airline staff, she walked through the airport to get her flight, while Harry was flanked by five police protection officers, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

Last week, Prince Harry was a guest at the castle of his friend Prince Franz Albrecht zu Oettingen-Spielberg, according to a report by Daily Mail diarist Sebastian Shakespeare.

Franz is nicknamed The Boar Terminator—one online video purports to show him killing a number of running boar in quick succession, while a kill counter clocks up on the screen below.

Both Harry and Prince William have been criticized for taking part in legal shoots while simultaneously campaigning against the trophy hunting of protected species such as rhinos and elephants.

In 2004, Prince Harry shot and killed a one-ton water buffalo while working on a ranch in South America on his gap year.

The Daily Beast has long argued that for the sake of better optics, the young princes need to give up shooting, however the royals show no sign of abandoning their beloved blood sports.

Carole Middleton is reportedly organising a days shooting for William’s friends at a grand estate near their home in Berkshire on ‘Boxing Day’—as the 26 December is known in the U.K.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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