Texas hunter kills endangered black rhino

[ttt]

How much of an incredible asshole do you have to be to do this? And to say "oh but it actually helps endangered rhinos when I kill them?" Give me an effing break. And F you to the Dallas Safari Club for their greediness and the Fish and Wildlife service for granting the permit to allow this. 


www.seattlepi.com/news/local/article/Controversial-Texas-hunter-kills-endangered-black-6276633.php


Texas hunter Corey Knowlton, who faced online backlash for paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill an endangered black rhino, shot and killed the rhino after a three-day hunt in Namibia on Monday.

Footage shot exclusively by CNN shows Knowlton firing his rifle and downing the animal, which was hit at least three times. Knowlton said he believed the killing would benefit the species' future.

"I felt like from day one it was something benefiting the black rhino," Knowlton told CNN moments after killing the rhino. "Being on this hunt, with the amount of criticism it brought and the amount of praise it brought from both sides, I don't think it could have brought more awareness to the black rhino."

There are about 4,800 black rhinos remaining in the world, according to World Wildlife Fund, Roughly 1,800 of those live in Namibia, where the hunt for the one rhino requested by Knowlton would take place.

More than 150,000 people signed petitions and left comments with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December asking them to bar Knowlton from being able to import the dead animal, thus preventing him from killing it.
 
The agency later granted the Dallas Safari Club, with whom Knowlton bid $350,000 for the permit to kill the animal, a permit to import the dead rhino, according to NPR.

"I am deeply saddened, disappointed and incredulous that he sees this mission as contributing to the survival of endangered black rhinos," Jeff Flocken of the International Fund for Animal Welfare told NPR. "If you pay to take a human life and give to humanitarian causes, it does not make you a humanitarian. And paying money to kill one of the last iconic animals on earth does not make you a conservationist."

[kirby]

I saw his interview on CNN. He is a complete doofus.

[MrsAxilla]

Ben had a field trip to the zoo this week and he came home talking all about this. Apparently, the zoo presented this a good thing, because the money is going to save the other rhinos? I don't know, I kept trying to get him to explain better, but he's seven, so he just said "he killed one rhino to save thousands, maybe millions of others!"

[ttt]

May 23, 2015 11:37:11 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Ben had a field trip to the zoo this week and he came home talking all about this. Apparently, the zoo presented this a good thing, because the money is going to save the other rhinos? I don't know, I kept trying to get him to explain better, but he's seven, so he just said "he killed one rhino to save thousands, maybe millions of others!"

The money is going to the Namibian government, so I'm sure it will be used 100% effectively for rhino conservation and will definitely not make its way into someone's pocket. 

[MrsAxilla]

May 23, 2015 11:38:52 GMT -5 ttt said:

May 23, 2015 11:37:11 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Ben had a field trip to the zoo this week and he came home talking all about this. Apparently, the zoo presented this a good thing, because the money is going to save the other rhinos? I don't know, I kept trying to get him to explain better, but he's seven, so he just said "he killed one rhino to save thousands, maybe millions of others!"

The money is going to the Namibian government, so I'm sure it will be used 100% effectively for rhino conservation and will definitely not make its way into someone's pocket. 

Haha. I was like "Ben, if he gets $300K to kill one, why wouldn't other people do that, too?  How does this save the rhinos?"  But he wasn't able to articulate the reasoning.  I wish I knew how this was presented, and by whom.

[katieido]

Fuck that guy! :mad:

[Cicero]

Everyone here knows I have zero problems with certain types of game hunting in Africa. But a critically endangered species? Fuck no.

[secretlyevil]

This is absolutely disgusting and the justification that's being thrown around? Fuck and no.

[NewOrleans]

I wonder if it cured the sexual impotence that no doubt motivated his need to kill a rhino.

Humans are a blight on this planet.

[mrsdewinter]

I wish asshole were an endangered species.

[decemberwedding07]

May 23, 2015 12:23:44 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

I wonder if it cured the sexual impotence that no doubt motivated his need to kill a rhino.

Humans are a blight on this planet.

AND my local NPR affiliate's report on this said that he is the son of a wealthy oil tycoon. Somehow, the fact that this asshole has some giant trust fund and THIS is what he's choosing to do with it, makes the whole thing even worse.

[LadySusan]

May 23, 2015 16:48:58 GMT -5 decemberwedding07 said:

May 23, 2015 12:23:44 GMT -5 NewOrleans said:

I wonder if it cured the sexual impotence that no doubt motivated his need to kill a rhino.

Humans are a blight on this planet.

AND my local NPR affiliate's report on this said that he is the son of a wealthy oil tycoon. Somehow, the fact that this asshole has some giant trust fund and THIS is what he's choosing to do with it, makes the whole thing even worse.

Riiight?!

But welfare recipients are too stupid to be trusted with more than $25 at a time.