Honestly, what other "side" to this sad story from the outfitter perspective could possibly put it in a better light? The OP is an African hunter with previous experience. He hasn't made a habit of complaining about those hunts. Quite the opposite. The trophies taken on this safari were crap. The complaints were numerous ... almost countless. I gave up reading about a third of the way through.
I agree that the client really shares little to no responsibility for taking a crappy animal. I had a PH set up the sticks for a wildebeest standing on the edge of a small herd. I already questioned whether we should be shooting any animal in the herd. The property manager told us two areas where we might find two lone bulls. Clearly, those were the bulls he wanted out of the gene pool. They were only wasting range. Anyone who's hunted buffalo knows how this works. Take a dagga boy, not the big one in the herd of cows. But this PH said it would be okay. One of the lone bulls would slide in and fill the slot. Hmmm. Okay, I do what I'm told. So we make a long stalk and the sticks are up inside an acacia thicket. The window only shows one animal shootable but it doesn't look right. Very dark colored. "Shoot the one quartering towards us." Well, they are all looking at us. "You mean the one on the far left?" He repeats quartering towards us. I ask a second time, "Far left?" Yes. So bang and down it goes on the spot. "Great shot! You got him." We walk up. "You shot the wrong animal!" Wait ... what happened to "great shot"? "It's a young bull." Young is an understatement. Clearly it's a yearling. "I asked you TWICE if I was supposed to shoot the animal on the far left and you confirmed. Don't put this on me!" He heads off for the truck and calls up the trackers whom he'd curiously told to stay back at the road when we started the stalk. Trackers are standing around and finally I tell them to roll it over and get to work. Won't be any photo op with this little thing. Let's have it ready when truck arrives. There's still enough daylight left to go after waterbuck or kudu, my desired objective for coming to that property in the first place. So they turn it over and ... it's got tits. Sweet jeezus! A damn cow! The farm's tracker grabs the tits and fortunately no milk. That one was obviously too young to be bearing fruit. Vehicle arrives and I'm not happy. PH says he'll fix it up with the lodge owner. Okay. Everyone makes mistakes. But he didn't fix it. When I'm checking out before going to the airport I'm presented with a $600 "tax" for the property owner because I shot his breeding stock. "You shot the wrong animal. Your PH knows how to ID a cow." There was a brief heated moment with that PH before the lodge owner quickly and satisfactorily resolved it. PH's tip was then halved. He's lucky he got anything. And I kinda felt bad about it. He's 57 years old with a new baby on the way. And he banged up his vehicle on one of our hunts. But he made TWO mistakes. I will go back to hunt with that lodge but NOT with that PH.
Shit can happen. But the operator needs to make it right. The OP's operator just went from one screwup to the next. He obviously didn't give a damn. But I bet he does now!