Rare rhino hunt prize of Texas safari club auction

[onehandle]

Source: AP



HOUSTON (AP) — Plans to auction a rare permit that will allow a hunter to take down an endangered black rhino are drawing criticism from some conservationists, but the organizer says the fundraiser could bring in more than $1 million, which will go toward protecting the species. John J. Jackson III belongs to the Dallas Safari Club, which earlier this month announced it would auction the permit — one of only five offered annually by Namibia, the southwestern African nation. The permit is also the first to be made available for purchase outside of that country.

"This is advanced, state-of-the-art wildlife conservation and management techniques," Jackson, a Metairie, La.-based international wildlife attorney, said Wednesday. "It's not something the layman understands, but they should. "This is the most sophisticated management strategy devised," he said. "The conservation hunt is a hero in the hunting community."

Some animal preservation groups are bashing the idea. "More than ridiculous," Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said Wednesday.

"At a time when the global community is rallying to protect the elephant and rhino from the onslaught of people with high-powered weapons, this action sends exactly the wrong signal. It's absurd. You're going to help an endangered animal by killing an endangered member of that population?" An estimated 4,000 black rhinos remain in the wild, down from 70,000 in the 1960s. Nearly 1,800 are in Namibia, according to the safari club.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/rare-rhino-hunt-prize-texas-safari-club-auction-053313143.html

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The logic of gun culture is 'shoot to kill' and 'shoot to save.' Just as long as you shoot.

The scene in the Simpsons where Homer walks around the house shooting light switches to turn them off comes to mind.

[yuiyoshida]

1. If someone found the very last

Dinosaur in, say for example, the Congo... news would spread like wild fire to every GAME hunter in the world to take it down, and probably sell the carcass to the highest bidder.

[Xyzse]

10. Unfortunately, I think that would be the case.

They will say:

-There is no chance for survival or sustainability any way.
-It costs too much resources to keep it alive. Let's just put it in display.

[yuiyoshida]

45. yup, they PAVED paradise and put up a parking lot...

[Xyzse]

50. What a coincidence

I just learned how to play that in the Uke.

[yuiyoshida]

52. I saw a video on youtube...

and interview with her, and before she could even afford a guitar, she bought a ukelele.

[DrDan]

2. must be quite a thrill to kill a very large, very endangered animal

the "winner" should feel quite privileged to have won this honor - and should feel quite proud and brave once the kill is made.

I am sure a suitable trophy will be returned home to brag about to the envy of friends, neighbors and other admirers.

[cosmicone]

4. Alas ....

Only if I could have the head of the beast that hunts this beautiful animal to display on my coffee table. I am sure it will be the envy of my friends, neighbors and admirers.

[cosmicone]

3. Why don't these people just

inject some testosterone to feel like a man rather than killing endangered and beautiful creatures who cannot defend themselves?

[Nihil]

5. Give the winner a knife and tell him to get on with it.n (n/t)

[Sheldon Cooper]

46. Yep.

That's how you make it a fair fight.

[heaven05]

6. what a beautiful animal

we're just going from bad to worse on our treatment of each other and ALL living creatures. How very, very sad. The longer I live the more I see that my grandmother was right about the human race. She said it all the time and as a child I really did not understand. But with her living in Georgia at the turn of the last century and my tour in Viet Nam, she was right.

[idwiyo]

7. This is beyond fucked up. Never mind where $1 million is going to go, definitely not to conservation

If anyone is naive enough to think otherwise, they are too stupid to be alive.

[SDjack]

8. Just more evidence that the rich have too much money. nt

[efhmc]

13. There are loads of other ways to get money for good causes than killing an animal.

Just putting this hideous idea on TV and asking for donations to keep it from happening would be one.

Number 11 is another great idea.

[efhmc]

22. I don't understand people who think like you so we have no basis

for conversation.

[LanternWaste]

14. I imagine many people feel that the imaginary concept of money is a greater priority than actual lif

I imagine many people feel that the imaginary concept of money is a greater priority than actual life... even if that life is endangered.

Not that I would ever trust the people who believe in such a way to act ethically in this context; I would however, certainly trust them to rationalize it afterwards.

[Sheldon Cooper]

47. The non-human animal's life is less worthy?

[polly7]

11. Too stupid for words.

Why couldn't they offer a photo-shoot contest where the winner's picture could be memorialized in many places ..... forever. They'd still have to show some bravery getting close enough to capture a great shot and have the satisfaction of not doing a bit of harm.

Brainless idiots!!!

[polly7]

15. I don't really believe anyone is going to pay a million just for a corpse, either.

That really isn't the point of it all, is it.

[polly7]

21. Pretty sick, eh?

The whole point of any conservation effort is to preserve the numbers of the species in question. How could destroying them make any sense to anyone with functioning grey matter? It's disgusting.

[polly7]

24. Are you seriously comparing the numbers of elk and deer in North America to

the black rhino?

"At a time when the global community is rallying to protect the elephant and rhino from the onslaught of people with high-powered weapons, this action sends exactly the wrong signal. It's absurd. You're going to help an endangered animal by killing an endangered member of that population?" An estimated 4,000 black rhinos remain in the wild, down from 70,000 in the 1960s. Nearly 1,800 are in Namibia, according to the safari club.

I believe hunting for food is up to the person who needs it ...... this, though IS sick, and no, I don't have to like it. Apparently you do, so go dog someone else, because no matter how much you rah-rah it, I think it's a moronic idea that only an imbecile would actually like.

And, p.s. .... managed hunting here of elk and deer is in large part due to a lack of their natural predators who aren't around as much, for many reasons, to weed out the old and the sick and keep the population at a sustainable level. But you know that .....

[polly7]

28. Go shoot something. nt.

[polly7]

30. No need to apologize! I just have no interest in discussing something so idiotic

with someone who believes killing a member of an already critically endangered species makes sense. Anyone who 'truly' cares about endangered species, and who has the money, should willingly give it for a less idiotic, bloodthirsty, sickening 'prize' than a corpse of the animal they profess to be trying to save. Fortunately, more and more people are seeing the beauty of these animals 'alive' and realize that photographing them can be just as adventurous and satisfying.

Obviously, you're not one of them.

[polly7]

32. It's idiotic. No need to bring poor Bambi into it to bolster your argument.

The 'millionaire' hunters (lol) could just as well hunt species that are overpopulated and they will actually eat, tan for hide ... use for life-sustaining reasons. Or, those 'millionaire' hunters aching for a rarest of the rare animal species trophy could just admit their hypocrisy in pretending they're concerned about preserving the numbers.

By the way ...... no-one that shoots an endangered animal in a canned hunt can call themselves a hunter. That's almost as comical as Cheney shooting those pheasants or whatever they were (and his friend in the face) and calling himself one. They're cowards, as is anyone who hunts for any other reason than to actually eat the meat and use the hides. jmo of course.

[Sheldon Cooper]

48. So of course we should allow a critically endangered animal to be slaughtered,

not for food, or safety, or any other sensible reason, but only so some man can stroke his dick afterward. Makes perfect sense to me.

[polly7]

49. Well NSS!!!! nt

[uppityperson]

51. There are more trees now also and tree farming is why.

Isn't that great?

[hamsterjill]

35. So then there are five dumbasses in the world that buy these permits???!!!

Just stop for a minute and THINK what other good in the world people who have THAT kind of money could do. Five million sure could feed a bunch of hungry people.

The fact that people with that much money CHOOSE to spend it in this manner rather than in some other positive manner is sickening to me.

[hamsterjill]

39. Of course it is.

I didn't say that it wasn't.

It would just be a better world if these selfish idiots thought about someone other than themselves for a change.

[hamsterjill]

42. That's my point!

n/t

[navarth]

16. That is some sick shit

Once again I am ashamed of my species. Humans will get what they deserve. Too bad we'll take down so much other life with us.

[leftyladyfrommo]

19. This is just plain gross.

Dick Cheney will probably be the first in line.

Bunch of assholes.

[Blue Owl]

26. Primitive bloodlust trumps critical thinking

[QuestForSense]

33. What are they going to do after they kill it?

Are they going to eat it? You know, they are not going donate it to the poor.

[QuestForSense]

53. I'm completely out to sea on this one.

People are going to pay money for the chance to kill an endangered animal to save the species? They are killing just for the thrill? For a trophy to their blood lust? We live in bizarre land now. For sure.

[Ranchemp.]

34. Why are they calling it a hunt?

This isn't hunting, this is an execution of an endangered animal.
Any blithering idiot can shoot an animal that doesn't run away immediately, it takes real skill to do an actual hunt.

[hamsterjill]

36. That's exactly right.

Are they going to pay a million and then say the rhino won? I don't think so.

Someone recently referred to it as "ambushing" rather than "hunting". I like that description myself.

[reddread]

43. let God sort em out