I didn't know about marking them for anatomical reasons-sure, it makes dangerous game a touch less dangerous by showing the kill zone, but at the same time it takes something out of the hunt-at least for me. I myself wouldn't want to hunt an elephant(now a Cape buff on the other hand...) but don't have a problem with someone else doing so. Maybe instead of painting bullseyes on the kill zone sonething should be done to enforce a marksmanship/anatomical knowledge requirement. Putting the dot directly on the animal to me turns the trip from "hunting" to simply killing. As far as my original post goes, I thought something was wrong there-even stupid people have at least some common sense-then again, common sense is what tells us that McDonald's coffee is hot, and that misuse of a firearm may cause "serious injury or death", but there are warning labels for both of these facts.
Sure, when your game can turn the tables on you(and your PH) with a badly placed shot, but don't a lot pf PH's complain that too many clients can't shoot anyway? If a hunter can't put a bullet in the right place a painted dot won't help as much as it would seem.
We all have that one dream hunt(I'm sure even people who have been to Africa still have something they wish they had a chance to hunt), so why diminish it by taking shortcuts? I've posted before that I want an elk-the only way it will happen is by saving some money. In the meantime I owe it to that elk to know how to kill it quickly, and have the ability to do so. That means for the meantime rifle practice and studying about the animal's habits, anatomy and anything else that helps. I'm sure we all know a hunter who cares more about killing an animal than the hunt itself. If everyone would either learn about what they're hunting or take their guide's advice on placement the paint splatter would be completely unnecessary.
After all, if elephant hunting were easy a lot more people would be doing it.