Lame indeed.
I once read an account of a famous African hunter who would lead tourists on elephant hunts. He said nearly every person wept after killing one. He said it was an inexplicable response, but he himself had experienced it. Something, maybe, to do with the grandeur of the beast. I don't know, but thought it was interesting.
Elephants also have very close family ties. The surviving family members will openly mourn. They also have been known to recognize individual people after many years of separation. Killing these animals for "fun" or to make oneself feel macho is utterly immoral. When they really have to be culled due to lack of space and food, it should be done by professionals, with entire family groups taken out at the same time.
There's film footage of a cull done many years ago, by shooting from a helicopter. It's really horrible to watch as the elephants try to protect their younger family members, and get killed because they're on the outside of the protective huddle they've formed. Once the adults have fallen, the terrified youngsters on the inside are killed. They really had to be culled, as the herd had grown way to large for the preserve they were on to support them -- they would have begun starving. But we really need to find better ways of doing it, and better ways of controlling the reproduction of the herds.