Black Rhino Hunt causes a kerfluffle

[martybegan]

Not surprised this is happening.

Corey Knowlton is on edge sitting inside a Las Vegas hotel room, surrounded by a private security detail, explaining why he spent $350,000 for the chance to hunt a black rhinoceros in the southern African nation of Namibia.
"If I sound emotional, it's because I have people threatening my kids," Knowlton told CNN. "It's because I have people threatening to kill me right now [that] I'm having to talk to the FBI and have private security to keep my children from being skinned alive and shot at."
Knowlton was outed over social media as the winner of the Dallas Safari Club's auction for a black rhino hunting permit from the Namibian government last weekend. It didn't take long for the threats and vitriol to start pouring in.

Knowlton counters that his hunt is part of a specific conservation plan, and that the $$ is going towards further preservation work.

Knowlton says the Namibian government has identified a handful of black rhinos that can be hunted. These are animals that are old, no longer capable of breeding and are considered a dangerous threat to other younger animals.
He said the threat to the rhino is from its own kind. "One of the other ear-tagged killer rhinos is going to injure it. And then either lions or hyenas are going to drag it down. It's going to die [in] a horrible manner, slowly."
So Knowlton argues, why not let a hunter pay a massive amount of money to take out a threat to the rest of the species. The Dallas Safari Club says the $350,000 paid by Knowlton will be donated to the Namibian government's black rhino conservation efforts.

 

[flacaltenn]

Its a real hard argument to SELL invites to help "manage" Nambian rhinos.. In the old days, you had be a friend of Namibian royalty to hunt a rhino or a poacher.

So if theres that much outrage, let 40,000 people each pledge $10 to out bid the hunters. We all spend more than that on toothpaste every year. Then you can get a video of the awful natural demise of that animal you saved..

These conservation issues are ALL economic. And putting value on nature is sometimes a decent part of the plan to preserve it.. It has LESS value when no one is trying to monitor and protect it..