dallas safari club rhino namibia

An American hunter has paid $350,000 for the right to kill an endangered black rhino in Namibia, like this one.

American's Bid to Take Home Rhino Head Stokes Hunting Debate

Hunters say their permits support conservation, but critics disagree.

Is an American hunter who's planning to shoot an endangered black rhino in Africa and who wants to bring its head home as a trophy helping to save the species?

It's a question the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is grappling with as it decides whether to grant a license to reality TV show co-host Corey Knowlton to import the rhino head. Knowlton bid $350,000 last year to win a much-publicized auction for the chance to kill a black rhino and is expected to travel to Namibia after the country's hunting season opens next month.

Trade in any rhino parts is restricted by international law, so hunters must get a special permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service to import them as trophies. That requires showing that the animal was killed in the name of conservation—and that bringing it home also helps that cause.

Decisions about such permits by Fish and Wildlife usually attract little notice. The agency typically receives three to eight comments from the public regarding pending requests to import trophies of endangered animals.

But since the auction last January, sponsored by a group called the Dallas Safari Club , Fish and Wildlife has received more than 15,000 comments about the trophy permit for Knowlton. The agency declined to characterize the comments, which are not public. But it has also received 135,000 signatures on petitions opposing the permit from groups like the Endangered Species Coalition , Care2 , and Move On .

The permit request has stoked a broader debate about the legitimacy of hunting in the name of conservation.

For Hungry Minds

The Dallas Safari Club and other supporters of the idea say that trophy hunting provides critical funds for conservation. Auction proceeds are given to a trust that makes grants for rhino conservation in the country, such as supporting anti-poaching patrols.

Trophy-hunting opponents, meanwhile, say that the idea of killing endangered animals to help save them is absurd. It "sends the signal that the animal is worth more dead than alive," says Jeff Flocken, North American regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare .

Fish and Wildlife is expected to issue its decision on the permit any day.

Rhinos in Trouble

Black rhinos have declined precipitously in recent decades. The trend is driven by habitat loss and poaching for their horns, used in traditional Asian medicine, despite the fact that Western scientists say they have no real therapeutic value.

Scientists estimate there are around 5,000 black rhinos left in the wild, down from 70,000 in the 1960s. (See " Rhino Wars " in National Geographic magazine.)

Namibia has recently earned high marks from environmentalists for trying to protect its remaining rhinos. The country supports some of that work by auctioning off up to five permits a year for trophy hunts of select individual rhinos. Most permits have been sold locally; the Dallas auction last January marked the first time that a sale happened in the U.S.

But the practice is increasingly coming under scrutiny from animal welfare groups.

The controversy boiled over after Knowlton won the auction, which bought a permit to shoot an aging bull rhino elected by Namibia's game managers. The news triggered outrage on social media. Knowlton received death threats and hired a private security firm.

Coverage of the issue also spotlighted another American hunter, Michael Luzich of Las Vegas, who has also requested to import a trophy in connection with a black rhino hunting permit in Namibia.

Protesters gather outside the Dallas Safari Club's auction for a rhino hunting permit last January.

Meaning of a Trophy?

To grant such permits, Fish and Wildlife must show that the importation of the trophy "enhances conservation of the species," according to Gavin Shire, the agency's chief of public relations.

It's a standard established by the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species , the international law that makes trade in endangered species parts illegal. The law allows countries to grant specific exemptions if they can show that the exemptions benefit conservation.

In reviewing permit applications, Shire says that Fish and Wildlife examines the health of the species in the host country, reviews the country's management plan, checks that the money paid for the hunting permit goes to conservation, and works to ensure that the imported trophy won't enter the black market.

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Dallas Safari Club executive director Ben Carter says that if Fish and Wildlife were to deny Knowlton's permit request, American sportsmen would be less likely to bid on hunting permits, hurting conservation efforts.

The agency has approved such permits in the past. A change now, Carter says, would be like someone "buying a car, then showing up to the dealer and being told, 'We'll take your money, but you can't have the car.'''

But Flocken says that hunters aren't motivated primarily by conservation: "It's really about the killing."

Knowlton did not respond to a request for comment.

Hunting as Conservation?

The idea of shooting animals to save them "may sound a little counterintuitive," Shire admits, but the concept has been around for years. The U.S. system of national wildlife refuges was largely built on fees collected from hunting.

Carter is blunt about the economics of African wildlife conservation: "It costs a lot of money to keep black rhinos expanding, and nobody else is providing those funds."

In 2009, the conservation group World Wildlife Fund (WWF) sent a letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service in support of controlled hunting of black rhinos in Namibia, saying it "will strongly contribute to the enhancement of the survival of the species."

WWF declined to comment for this story.

Carter says that Namibian game managers have selected older male black rhinos as targets because they are no longer breeding and can limit the growth of the local population. That's because they continue to assert dominance by preventing younger males from breeding with females, meaning fewer rhino babies.

Shire says the Fish and Wildlife Service is currently studying that argument.

But Flocken says there are problems with it. "No one knows when adult male rhinos stop being reproductively viable because there have been no scientific studies on it," he says. If game managers want to increase genetic diversity by allowing younger males to breed, he says, they should move "problem" rhinos.

Wardens do occasionally move rhinos, sometimes from country to country, in a bid to thwart poachers. The process costs about $10,000 per animal, and Flocken notes that 35 rhinos could be moved for the price of the Dallas Safari Club's winning auction bid.

"That's a fine idea," Carter says, "but I haven't seen a lot of checks going to that."

He criticizes animal rights groups for spending money on advertising and legal campaigns to discredit trophy hunting "while not sending money to the government of Namibia to support conservation on the ground."

Some conservation groups are on the record as supporting the auction, including Save the Rhino, which has not issued a statement on the pending trophy permit but which has supported regulated trophy hunting in the past.

"It would be nice if donors gave enough money to cover the spiralling costs of protecting rhinos from poachers," the group said in a statement . "Or if enough photographic tourists visited parks and reserves to cover all the costs of community outreach and education programmes." But that just doesn't happen.

South Africa introduced limited white rhino hunting in 1968, when there were only 1,800 of the animals in the country. That number has since risen to 19,000, Save the Rhino notes .

But rhino poaching has hit an all-time high, with two to three killed by poachers every day , largely to feed demand for horns in China and Vietnam. The horns are made of keratin, the same material as human fingernails, and are marketed as medicines for everything from cancer to hangovers.

"This is a critically endangered species," Flocken says, "and we're at the point where every individual matters."

Follow Brian Clark Howard on Twitter and Google+ .

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Support for Black Rhino Import Permit

Home » Big Game » Support for Black Rhino Import Permit

By Richard Cheatham, DSCF President

DSC (this time the DSC Foundation) auctioned another black rhino export permit given to DSC Foundation by the government of Namibia. The rhino killed by the hunter in the spring of 2017 was an old bull that had previously killed six other individuals – one post-productive male took out six productive individuals. The sale generated hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Game Products Trust Fund in Namibia and those funds were earmarked for black rhino research and protection.

Attached is a redacted copy of the comment to the application for the issuance of an import permit filed by the hunter in question. The comment was submitted on behalf of DSC Foundation. It includes language used in the comment submitted by Dallas Safari Club and information assimilated by Conservation Force.

DSCF Comment to USFWS

The evidence in support of an enhancement finding is overwhelming. The fact is that the government of Namibia, particularly the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, has done a remarkable job in creating and implementing a well thought out management plan. All involved are to be congratulated – the incredible success, partially funded by monies paid by hunters for permits, is nothing short of amazing.

Despite Namibia’s indisputable record of success with black rhinos – the population doubled in the 20 year period between 1995 and 2015 – the critics of the hunt will once again go on the attack. What we are seeing is this: they, the critics, are losing the argument. The public, through the comment process and the instant news cycles made possible by social media, is seeing what is actually happening. The public is seeing the evidence of the success of Namibia’s model. The public now has access that those who oppose hunting do not want them to have – access to facts that verify what we have known for years: a sustainable use wildlife management policy, with well-regulated hunting as a core principle of the program, works . It works for wildlife. It works for wilderness. It can be applied to “Vulnerable” species. It can be applied to “Near Threatened” species.

DSC Foundation and Dallas Safari Club have urged the approval of the import permit in question – we think that the proof of enhancement is clear and undeniable.

To learn more about DSC Foundation, go to www.dscf.org.

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You are here: Home » News » The Dallas Safari Club controversy

The Dallas Safari Club controversy

28 Oct 2013

By: Save the Rhino

Websites and newspapers this month have carried many articles and comments about an auction, to be held in Dallas in January 2014, for the right to trophy hunt a black rhino in Namibia. We’re curious as to why this particular trophy hunt auction has received such widespread coverage and comment.

South Africa introduced limited white rhino hunting in 1968, when there were only 1,800 animals within South Africa (now there are 19,000). Namibia and South Africa have each had the right (under CITES – the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species) to offer up to five trophy hunts of black rhinos since 2004, when there were around 3,600 black rhinos (now there are 5,055). In other words, black rhino trophy hunting has been on offer for nine years already.

So what’s new about this story?

The key difference is that Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) , which owns all black rhino in Namibia, has decided to auction this particular trophy hunt in a different way. Normally, MET holds auctions in Windhoek, Namibia, which are attended by a mix of individuals and companies. Most of the bidders will be hunting safari operators, who buy permits to shoot particular numbers of specific species, and then offer these to their mailing list of clients, making a nice margin for themselves along the way. In South Africa, state departments like Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife do the same thing: hold an auction, within KwaZulu-Natal in this case, and hope the customers will come to them.

Instead, MET has looked at where the wealthiest hunters are – and these tend to be American or German – and has focused on getting the best possible price for a black rhino trophy hunt. Rather than hold the auction in Namibia, and hope that there are enough people with serious funds in the room to drive the bid up, they’ve gone straight to the potential customers – in this case, the members of Dallas Safari Club. Funds from this auction will go to the Game Products Trust Fund in Namibia and will be ring-fenced specifically for rhino conservation efforts.

Texas is one of the wealthiest states in the USA and it makes sense to set your stall out where the money is. There’s no point opening a shop selling de Beers’ diamonds in a council estate in a rundown city suburb. Indeed, the Club’s Executive Director, Ben Carter, thinks the trophy could go for as much as US $750,000.

In 2013, Namibia issued three trophy hunting permits, and auctioned them in the usual way, in Windhoek. These permits sold for N$2.18m, N$1.815m and N$1.815m, which at today’s exchange rate work out at US $223,000, US $185,000 and US $185,000. On this basis, if Carter’s prediction holds true, MET’s experiment could be a very profitable one, with over three times as much raised for black rhino conservation than the previous method.

Why, people ask, is a conservation organization like MET or Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife even allowing trophy hunts in the first place? Couldn’t they get $750,000 without having to suffer an animal being shot?

Well yes, it would be nice if donors gave enough money to cover the spiralling costs of protecting rhinos from poachers. Or if enough photographic tourists visited parks and reserves to cover all the costs of community outreach and education programmes. But that just doesn’t happen. It costs around $500,000 a year to run a relatively small rhino programme with only 20-30 animals. Heaven only knows how much it costs to run Kruger National Park in South Africa, or Etosha National Park in Namibia.

Fundraising for rhinos is hard. We’re not just competing for funds against other endangered species – elephants, tigers, polar bears, pandas – but against cancer charities, children’s charities, or the most recent natural disaster. In “An inconvenient truth”, Al Gore asserted that 97% of charitable giving goes to people-related causes and 1.5% to pet charities, leaving only 1.5% for the conservation of our entire planet. Are enough new rhino-focused donors really going to come out of the woodwork to make income from trophy hunting unnecessary?

We’re not surprised that this innovation has come from Namibia. The country led the way with community-based natural resource management programmes in the 1990s, an approach that has widely been hailed as keeping communities on the side of wildlife as rhino poaching has stormed through Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. MET has been an early adopter of various types of new technologies for protecting rhino – UAVs, tags, microchipping rhino, satellite bracelets etc.

Let’s see if MET has made the right call on holding this auction in Dallas.

Click here to read a good article by Steve and Ann Toon, who recently interviewed Pierre du Preez, the national rhino co-ordinator for the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET). Pierrre explains the history of sustainable wildlife utilisation in Namibia and the importance of funding from the Game Products Trust Fund.

Click here to read a comment from the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group regarding the recent Dallas Safari Club black rhino permit auction

Click here to read a comment from the IUCN Sustainable Livelihoods Specialist Group regarding the recent Dallas Safari Club black rhino permit auction

37 thoughts on “ The Dallas Safari Club controversy ”

Hi Cavens, The population figures that we display on our website are from the IUCN as of the 31st Dec 2013 as these are the official rhino population figures. These figures are updated approx every 4 years when a new census is done. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/4185/0

https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/rhino_population_figures

The Northern white rhino which you refer to in your comments is a subspecies of the White rhino. There are only 5 left in the world and there has been stories recently about Sudan, the last male Northern white rhino being guarded 24/7 by military.

There are approx 20,405 Southern white rhino based on the last census and are mostly found in South Africa.

I’m not too sure which numbers you are referring to that you feel are confusing.but I hope this helps clear things up.

I have no clue where you get the white rhino numbers from, i’ve read recently that they have the last wild living white rhino garded 24/7 by military and just googleing it links me to this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_white_rhinoceros

on the other hand you have the other subspecies but your numbers are not matching at all,

you are just taking both and mixing them to make it look good

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_rhinoceros

get your facts straight and maybe you’ll get some credit

and the numbers you are talking about are about these

I think this is complete and utter blasphemy!!!! I’d like to see how happy you’d be if someone hunted you and sold your precious body parts in auction. I wish hunters would try and manually kill a rhino and see how tough they are against one of natures true brutes! These lowly, sad, and unfortunate excuses for human beings. And people who support limited hunting are just as bad. How counterproductive can that be? Its absolutely ridiculous. These Rhinos will be gone in 50 years tops for every 5 rhinos killed. Screw Namibia for they’re ridiculous money hungry government. Hmph some protective wildlife service this is.

Some more facts about the killing of the black rhino. Trophy Hunting with the WWF: http://www.pandaleaks.org/kill-it-to-save-it/

@savetherhino You shoulld be ashamed to be in support of this!!!!!!!! Disgraceful SAVE THE RHINO…….What a Joke!

Hi As a Namibian and having been involved for many years as a guide, I can tell you the community based conservation is not working as planned.. I can go now to the North west of Namibia and buy a Oryx antelope for N$350 from the community with out a hunting permit.. greed drives these communities now, just look at the conservation efforts of desert lion conservation efforts and how many Lions they have lost through poisoning etc in communal areas… The Namibian government is the problem here as they could help save their Rhinos in stead of refurbishing parliament buildings for hundreds of millions and channel money to conservation this is stupid..Follow Botswana and stop all hunting of key icon species.. there are none left for heavens sake!!!!!

I understand the concept. I understand hunting brings in revenue. But, when is it okay to do something ethically questionable for profit? For example, couldn’t the US and China have made lots of money by selling ivory rather than crushing it!? They could have given the money to elephant charities. They did not want to promote ivory use under any circumstance. Why is it okay to promote trophy hunting? WWF is trying hard to decrease trophy hunting by their “”I am not a rug”” campaign and another organization is supporting it…. It doesn’t make sense to have good and bad trophy hunting– it sends the wrong message. How far do you go to make money? Why is it okay to sell a rhino for trophy, but not an elephant for tusks or a tiger for fur??? I suspect this will hurt your long term fund raising too– I hope it was worth it.

Dear anonymous commentator

I’m sorry to read that you are considering whether to continue to support Save the Rhino International because of our support for the sustainable use of wildlife.

Could I please ask you, if you haven’t done so already, to read two articles posted on our site:

– Firstly, for background information on trophy hunting overall: http://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/trophy_hunting – And secondly, an article by the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Scientific Officer for the African Rhino Specialist Group, on why the IUCN believes that trophy hunting has a role to play in rhino conservation efforts: http://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/trophy_hunting/the_debate_about_rhino_hunting

It’s an extremely difficult issue, and I hope you understand that our position has not been taken lightly, but has been considered with great care and using the best scientific advice available.

I’m very disappointed to hear that the Save the Rhino organisation supports these practices. I was unaware that this type of thing was allowed, much less supported by this organisation, until the uproar over this very publicised one made headlines. My husband and I have been supporters of Save the Rhino, but this support will be reviewed this year. Practices that reinforce and publicise the monetary value of a dead rhino surely does nothing to discourage poachers.

Hey Rhino Killers, yeah you wearing the t shirt that says I’m a kill crazy idiot! I’m calling PETA, The Humane Society, and any straight headed person on this planet on you! Save the Rhino huh? How about kill everyone you can find and boast about IT!

To Steven- Hunting sometimes works for conservation and sometimes it does not. There are several factors involved. The biggest one being does the money truly go to conservation. unfortunately is does not always go there especially when dealing with corrupt safari companies and governments. I am not arguing the hunting issue here, just that it is not as black and white as you make it appear. Whether an anti-hunter has donated money or not is as relevant as if a pro-hunter has ever paid for an expensive hunt. Hunters are not necessarily paying for conservation, many are paying to hunt, with conservation being the by product. Too often each side tries to vilify the other. No doubt there are anti-hunters who are uneducated in the matter just as there are hunters who could not care less about conservation and only care to kill. I could ask the question- how many hunters contribute to conservation just for the good of it? Will those who bid at DSC and loose still contribute money to conservation without getting the chance to kill something?

Jessica, I beg to differ with your acerbic attack. Instead of providing us all with your insightful reasons as to why to found the post to be idiotic, you blessed us all with your your own insanely idiotic post. At no point in your short ramble were you even close to providing a rational thought.

This is the type of reply that causes more friction than good. Here we have someone laying out observations and asking questions in an attempt to perhaps come to terms with each others’ agendas. To maybe find common ground. Instead of you carefully reading the post and addressing her comments one by one, you attack.

There were several posts hear asking the anti-hunters to think with reason and not passion. I must question whether you thought at all. I cannot figure out what side you are on. Perhaps you do not agree with what she posted, but instead of sounding less intelligent than you accuse the author of being, you should provide a coherent substantiated retort.

Now in case this was all too much for you, i will simplify it: Your comment was uncalled for, inconsiderate, unintelligent, and combative. Go find an elementary school website to post on since that seems to be your level. Good day to you.

What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

A really interesting set of comments so far. I wonder if there is a set of common goals no matter who’s “”side”” (hunting vs no hunting) of this debate you are on. Can both sides agree on the following – (a) Seek that the Black Rhino species to live on, ultimately to no longer be “”endangered”” (b) Seek an end (or at least a significant reduction) to poaching (c)Seek an end (or at least significant reduction) to the illegal rhino horn trade (d) Agree that funding needs to be raised to adequately resource Rhino Conservation (e) Seek accountability on how those funds raised are to be spent on Rhino Conservation (f) Seek that adequate evidence is provided for any Rhino deemed counterproductive to a Rhino population (ie. counterproductive = causing stagnation or decreases to a Rhino populations) and therefore requires “”removal”” from that population.

I think it is important to find what can be agreed on across the spectrum of participants in this discussion. Ultimately, the dispute lies with “”how”” we achieve these goals, if these goals (above) can be agreed on. I would welcome comments on the goals above.

A few key points of contention that stand out are:

From the perspective of those that are broadly “”against”” hunting an endangered species – It appears that the hunting fraternity seek the opportunity to “”hunt”” and “”kill”” a Rhino, and “”justify”” this by saying that hunting generates the necessary funding for conservation. This is largely viewed as an “”excuse”” to hunt.

There appears to be a consistent message from the Hunting fraternity that they are the ones putting money into Rhino (and other species) conservation and that those that are “”against hunting”” do no contribute financially, or if they do contribute, the funding is inadequate.

Those against hunting view the hunting fraternity as “”blood thirsty”” and egotistical.

The hunting fraternity view those against hunting as having unrealistic expectations and living in something of a fantasy world remote form reality.

Some of these views,appear to stem from the current situation for Rhino populations – at this point in time, the Black Rhino is endangered. This conversation, and some of the views, could potentially be vastly different if the Black Rhino was not endangered. Everyone has different views on how we should get to that point in time.

I’d like to note that there has been no meaningful discussion of an alternative to actually hunting and killing the Rhino that requires “”removal”” – neither the hunting fraternity or those “”against”” hunting have mentioned alternatives for “”removal””, such as relocation to a sanctuary, zoo, or other? Would a zoo or sanctuary want/ have a need/see benefits in housing a male Black Rhino past it’s breeding prime? What are the practicalities, financial implications, for alternatives? What would people be willing to do for an alternative solution to “”remove”” this Rhino (and up to 5/year based on current hunting permits?)

I wonder – if it could be shown that this Rhino (and others) could successfully be relocated and become, for example, an ambassador for the Rhino Species, and a similar amount of money be to that expected to be raised by auction for Rhino Conservation – would the hunting fraternity and those opposed to hunting fraternity be equally happy? What common goals are not met by an alternative?

Looking at the common goals (if they can be agreed on), the Auction scenario appears to do nothing to increase awareness of the plight of the Rhino, and it could be argued that it promotes the killing of an endangered species, and it appears to do nothing to combat poaching etc. Unless funding raised can be specifically shown to be spent in the certain areas – such as education, anti poaching, etc, then are there alternatives to hunting and killing.

There is no denying that the hunting fraternity can raise significant amounts of money. Just like some people can afford to purchase million dollar pairings to hang on their walls. Some others have barely a penny to rub together, but still care about the Rhino and other endangered species none the less.

The question needs to be asked: “”Acknowledging that the Hunting fraternity can come up with significant money, why can’t the hunting fraternity simply raise funding for Rhino Conservation, without the hunting permit, and manage those funds specifically to achieve the agreed goals?””. Does there have to be a “”hunt”” and “”kill”” for the hunting fraternity to donate funding to Rhino Conservation? If the hunting fraternity could raise funding without the “”hunt and kill””, in the longer term – once the Rhino is no longer endangered – people form all backgrounds may be more open minded about the acceptability to hunt a Rhino.

Your thoughts?

First of all i would like to thank Dallas Safari Club for taking the positive step towards conserving our uniquely adapted desert Black Rhino’s. To all the critics i would like give my opinion. The fat arsed rich white man who likes to inflate his ego by hunting and displaying his trophy. While on the hunt he might resent himself for not opting to run the comrades or fish river marathon instead. This is not done from the back of a land cruiser with a cooler box full of nice cold beverages and snacks. You slam hunters but what about poachers? Have you seen the cruelty they bestow upon their quarry? They will take pregnant cows, young calves, and in some cases the animals horn is chopped off and its still alive afterwards! They dont hunt selectively! Spend your time and energy on waking up asia so they don’t think rhino horns have any medicinal value! Research has shown that taking out the old counterproductive bulls that are very aggressive towards their own species also benefit the rhino population as a whole. The system works at and thats that – it has been working for many years. The estimated amount the permit will go for on the auction is USD 750,000-00. While the whole world is crying foul over this topic no one is saying two words about the stupendous amounts of bucks earned per film by actors. A private art collector spent USD 250million on a painting. That is atrocious in my opinion – why dont you go crying about that instead of berating a group of people for doing something positive about an issue. People who go to africa, spend money, get out in nature and experience it full on. But instead you sit in your armchair and criticise. And discuss it with your buddy or bff while sipping a starbucks latte. Wearing make up tested on some poor chimp in some lab somewhere. Why dont you book a safari, come to Africa, get out in the lekker hot sun and make a diffirence ( you would have to take a long safari to even contribute a small fraction of what that rich fat arsed hunter is pumping into our conservation trusts ) But you probably would rather go to some tropical island somewhere to be pampered and massaged….

And now the Dallas Safari Club is using this column as evidence that their hunt is acceptable.

It just disgusts me that rich white men are going to third world countries to kill endangered species. And your lukewarm support is even more disgusting.

Interesting to read the debate, and I am actually not sure which side to choose. But as a comment to some of the guys above, I would like to present myself – yes, I eat meat and I hunt a small amount of it myself. I do not hunt to hang a trophy on the wall. To Steven I can say that I spend quite a lot of money on hunting (with a camera) trips to Namibia, Botswana and other countries in southern Africa, and……… I spend some of my salary each month on antipoaching actvities through the WWF – so try not to patronize me by saying “”you don’t know about this or that””. Now – about the issue – the saving of some by killing another? Yes, I can agree on that since there seem to be no other way to finance the anti-poaching squads. But, I can not readily accept the stupidity in the rich people of the world, the Chinese who buys the products from the poachers and their middle-men or the Westerners (seems to be a majority of such in the red-neck belt in the US) who wants to kill something to be able to brag about their money and the danger in killing a half-blind animal,which was chased in front of their Landrover. And………….if killing is so acceptabel to save some, why not start killing off elderly people and people with incurabel diseases to get organs? Or pay a fee to shoot persons with a death sentence – they will get killed anyway…. Most will say that this would not be acceptable and start gibbering about the difference between humans and animals – and there are differences, lika animals are not evil, animals will only kill to protect themselves or to eat (a fox killing off a lot of hens does not do it for fun or bloodthirst, it just lacks the ability to stop as long as the hens flap and try to flee) So – to finish it off – I can accept this Rhino auction, but I loathe the reasons for it and the bidders

How many of you anti-hunters have donated one cent to the survival of the animals you are so passionate about “”saving””? I have been to South Africa where my license and trophy fees have contributed a great deal to the conservation and propagation of the species I hunted. Also, every game aminal we harvested was butchered and eaten, some by us, but the majority of it by the resident consession workers who are given free meat each day to take home for their families. We here in the U.S. pay something called the Pittman/Robertson act tax on every purchase of outdoor recreation, hunting and ammunition that contributes muti-millions to the conservation effort of animals that would be extinct without sportsman in our country. Whitetail deer, turkeys, elk, bighorn sheep, grizzly bears, wolves, mountain lions and many more species have been saved from the brink of disaster by concerned sportsmen. Get educated before you condemn the pro-hunting/conservation platform. It works and is best for all parties concerned, even the animals who without it would be either extinct or overpopulated and diseased/starving. Nature is hard yet beautiful, brutal yet resourceful and replenishing. We do best to work with it to wisely use this resource and appreciate the gift God has given us to be steward over. Poaching is the problem in Africa for rhinos, elephants and several other large species. But the true problem stems from political systems that produce poverty and injustice, where people will do anything to make a buck, and have little or no regard for human or wildlife.

I don´t lose time discusing with all those anti-hunting. Unfortunately, they are not driven with the purpose of protecting endangered species, they ultimate goal is to print in everybody´s mind that animals are equal to humans and because of that, its wrong to kill animals. Animals are not equal to humans and that became obvious when you see that humans have moral, can make choices beyond their insticts and more important, they are rational. The anti-hunters want to call us “”blood and ego thirsty individuals”” but they don´t want to recognise their psicological problems watching the bambi´s mom deaht and -more important- that hunting is doing more to protect endangered species that their PETA, Greenpeace ad HUSUS protest that only raise money to finance this people making protests instead of being an active part of the solution. At least hunters are trasparent with the use of the money raised in hunting permits and the most part is applied with land management. For me, your use of “”humanity”” its a sad and pathetic excuse to raise money and don´t do nothing to save the ecology. The well greased gears of the protest industry don´t do nothing to take care of our enviroment.

A rhino hunt? Endorsed by blood thirsty gun packing Americans always find a pathetic excuse to kill something. Sad excuse for humanity.

It is definitely worth a try. Your article should also have mentioned that Namibian authorities will designate the rhino to be hunted, an older, irascible one past breeding age and one that fights and harms other rhinos. In other words, one that actually interferes with growth of the population. True conservationists would endorse this.

So this is what man comes to in our century. If not for “”financial incentives”” then wildlife will suffer.

While I understand the balanced “”objective”” non emotional viewing of this two sided equation, … and the necessity of financially incenting as described, … it is shameful that we as a species require financial incentives to produce a good outcome for wildlife.

WHAT IF: Here’s an interesting and “”objective”” reversal: What if we tag a handful of humans per year. We could sacrifice them to “”X”” animal for hunting (sort of coliseum style). The revenues raised could be used for “”X”” human cause that the rest of us need. Yeah, I’m sure that sounds fair. Everyone would certainly go along with that. Hmmmmmmm

Why this is having so much attention? Because the general public didn’t know about those practices. Trophy hunting is a short term solution and your endorsement shows that you practically gave up on education to let hunters have their way. It’s saying that animals aren’t worth saving unless we have a use them. It’s an admission of failure. I understand the rationale, but it’s an “”end justifies the means”” approach. What will it be next time? What will be the new rationale? And what if the permits are sold for less and less money? It’s a slippery slope and that hunting club’s idea is not the solution. And by the way, I notice that your article doesn’t refer at all to the actual amount of money those hunting permits fetch. Why is it kept secret? Is someone accountable for the money? I think if your goal is to save rhinos, you should be happy with the public attention.I seem to recall that on Twitter, you weren’t so gung-ho about this auction. Why the change of heart?

Conservation efforts cost money. Lots of money. And, as mentioned in the article, it takes a lot of money to protect the Rhinos. The reason the DSC was able to set up this auction is because the Namibian government knows that the DSC will be able to raise a lot of money to protect the Rhinos. If somebody else could raise just as much money, the government of Namibia would be talking to them.

Now, if people feel so “”shocked””, “”horrified””, and/or “”disgusted”” about this hunt, then spend/donate money to protect the Rhinos. Develop a solution that directly pays for people to protect/preserve the Rhinos. Don’t just whine about it. I’m not trying to be negative about this, but talking/complaining/””raising awareness”” does absolutely nothing to protect the Rhinos. Money does.

According to the National Geographic Society, poachers have killed between 2 and 3 Rhinos every day of this year. If we do not find a solution that puts money directly into the hands of those that will protect and preserve these animals, we are going to lose them forever. The DSC, with the Namibian and US government, has come up with a plan to do just that.

It’s truly sad when individuals can’t put aside emotions to look at the facts. You may not like hunting. You may not ever want to hunt, but as the above points out hunt conservation is a model that works. There would be no white rhino, black rhino, or even whitetail deer if it were not for hunters. Despite this, there are those that would rather see a species go extinct than allow one or two past breeding aged animals to be taken for sport. I expect to be called an idiot and a murderer and threatened – it’s happened in the past. But I stand by facts, not a rainbow and unicorn view of a world that doesn’t and has never existed.

Hi John, I do agree with you. We are losing habitat so fast that animals and humans are in close contact much more often, and I am not trying to argue that hunting is the answer, just that for the time being it is a reality, and one that brings in big bucks. In SA for example hunting generated R1.1billion in 2010 http://mg.co.za/article/2012-10-30-molewa-hunting-brings-much-to-south-africas-economy

I learned a lot about Campfire that K Ferguson mentions from conservationists including rhino experts who helped design and implement the strategy in Zim and beyond and it has worked by degrees. It is all for the benefit of wildlife AND local people.

The absolutist position, No hunting under any circumstances, is not a real world position. In places like Tanzania and Kenya 80% of the population live in rural communities meaning that the only choices they have in life involve using the natural resources on their doorstep to survive. How can we from the comfort of our armchairs tell them that they must live in poverty to protect wildlife?

We have to use any means necessary to enable communities to develop sustainably without destroying their environment and this requires money. Eventually we would hope that the funds they can derive from trophy hunting can be replaced by other things.

But please consider IMO that leading by example matters. We have destroyed our own wildlife and we hunt too. We also eat animals. 10 billion animals killed for food in the US annually. Nearly 60 billion world wide.

Lets help developing countries develop as fast as possible and in the most environmentally sustainable way possible. Most importantly by standing up against Industrial Agriculture and Big Oil.

A very good article and one that should make people think with their heads and not their hearts.

I am pro conservation and am not at all interested in hunting. The idea of hunting for sport and trophy disgusts me. But I am open minded enough to realise that there is a place for it in today’s world.

Coming from Zimbabwe where the Campfire Project helped villages and wildlife live in harmony for many years, I agree with Namibia’s plans. The sad truth, is that for animals & wildlife to survive this money hungry, modern world, they have to serve a purpose. The project would, together with the Department of Environmental Affairs, select a certain number of animals to hunt each year. The animals hunted were generally the older non productive animals who were coming to the end of their productive breeding lives. Culling these animals would make way for younger and new blood to be introduced.

In the end the hunter had his trophy and the villages received a large percentage of the moneys from the hunt which encouraged them to protect the animals on their land from poaching.

The same is being done with the Black Rhino that is going up for auction in Namibia. This animal will be passed his breeding prime. He will be preventing young, new blood from breeding and thereby having a negative effect on their numbers.

Why not turn the situation around and ‘use’ this animal, who would otherwise die a natural death, to benefit the rest of the population? Done properly, the hunt will enable so much more to be done for rhino conservation, than his natural death would.

If everyone had to sit down and seriously think about this, emotions aside, they would realise it makes perfect sense!

Marcus, we have crop raiding elephants because we humans have steadily taken more and more land for our own use. I’m sure they’d happily keep their distance if they had a choice! Other species have a right to live on this planet and should be given space in which to do so.

If you take an animals life it should be to eat it. It ain’t right that a rhino has to die just because some fat arsed rich tosser wants to feel like a big man. if you want to shoot it, use a bloody camera, not a rifle! That way it’ll be there for future generations.

Sustainable use programs like the one for Black Rhino described in this article provide a real economic incentive for conservation. It is an economic incentive for those who share their local environment with the wildlife we seek to preserve, and for those in charge of the environment in these countries. The alternatives described above are to raise money by charitable appeals or by taxation. Neither of these provide a sustainable economic basis for the long term survival of endangered species. You might not like sustainable use (of which hunting is an example) but you cannot deny it provides the economic incentive that is vital to the long term survival of any species.

NO this must not be allowed AT ALL There should be NO EXCEPTIONS

To those who are suspicious of this, you should know that under US law, US scientists have to certify that this hunt BENEFITS the species before the hunter can import the trophy. They have already done this in relation to other black rhinos hunted under this programme. So while you may not approve of hunting, you cannot deny that this really does help black rhino conservation.

Why is the rhino on the endangered list? Because there are too few of them to sustain populations into the future. How come trophy hunting can be justified in this scenario. This trophy hunting is nothing but business gimmick to allow perverts to kill priceless animals for pleasure.A right thinking man would donate money to save rhinos not pay for trophy hunting.Introduce a wild protection tax on the incomes of the super rich for enjoying filthy comforts.

One word – IDIOTS!!!!!! Despite teaching my children to never call anyone this word, nothing else comes to mind!! If these people had one brain cell, it would be lonely. Can’t believe that such senseless, thoughtless, idiotic decisions are being made in the light of the struggle we are facing trying to protect our wildlife!

Disgusting excuses for human beings

Sorry but this is morally wrong and there is never a good reason to hunt for ‘sport’. You’ve lost me as a doner and i’m extrememly disappointed in your post.

Great article that will, i hope, stimulate minds rather than enflame passions. The sustainable or consumptive use debate has been going on quietly for years. When I did my MSc. in Conservation Biology in the late 90’s i was passionate about wildlife and adamant that hunting was bad.

One of our lecturers a rhino expert no less, talked at length with us about the “”benefits”” of a sustainable resource use model which is one that has been implicitly supported by some big NGO’s for years. This model allows for buffer zones between National Parks and local communities where local people may benefit from revenue from limited hunting, giving them a tangible benefit from living next door to wildlife. These so called Game Management Areas (GMA) are an integral part of the conservation toolkit across Africa and reflect the challenges faced by Protected Area managers and scientists on a daily basis.

These kinds of strategies reflect the reality of excluding local people from huge areas of land and water that they could or used to derive a livelihood or sustenance from.

It is all too easy to forget that we in the West have already destroyed much of our wildlife. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is a multi billion dollar agency that presides over a hunting industry that kills an estimated 200 million animals a year, and removes predators in areas to improve the hunting. This is the pot calling the kettle black.

A recent article in the Guardian newspaper by George Monbiot, and his book Feral, highlights the fact that we have had to invent a whole new science to repair our complete destruction of the flora and fauna of yesteryear. “”Rewilding”” is the fledgling science of man recreating complete ecosystems of the past. Sure its clever but we had to mess it all up to make it useful, and biodiversity is still declining in the West.

I am still passionate about wildlife and still hate hunting but in order to really save the worlds wild places and the wildlife that live there we cannot preach from our shaky platform. We have to work with local communities to help them see the real financial benefit in man-eating lions or crop-raiding elephants, and we MUST avoid exporting our industrial farming practices that would ultimately lead to a “”Rewild Africa”” campaign in 30 years time.

If we want these auctions to stop WE must fund the fight for the worlds wildlife with real money. The global economy generates US$70+ trillion a year. WE CAN afford to stop the destruction but it can’t be done the way we are going about it. “”if you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting!

Why should a Rhino have to die to save the rest? It is cruel and one more Rhino death is one too many! Why do these stupid multi millionaires not just donate the money they would spend at an auction to a trust worthy Rhino organisation? But NOOOOO they have to show off to their stupid rich friends and family with a trophy! Where is the humanity in humans?

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To Save The Black Rhino, Hunting Club Bids On Killing One

Fewer than 5,000 black rhinos are thought to exist in the wild, and in an effort to preserve the species, the Dallas Safari Club is offering a chance to kill one.

The Texas-based hunting organization is auctioning off a permit to hunt a rhinoceros in Nambia. It's a fundraiser intended to help save the larger population.

The idea may sound counter-intuitive, but Dallas Safari Club executive Ben Carter tells NPR's Jennifer Ludden that raising the funds to support the species is what many scientists and biologists believe is the best way to grow the population of black rhinos.

"It takes money for these animals to exist. A lot of people don't recognize that," Carter says. An endangered species like the black rhino needs a lot of support — land, protection, management, studies. "This is one way to raise a lot of money at one time," he says. "That can make a huge impact on the future of the species."

Predictably, the Jan. 11 auction has raised controversy within the environmental community. There's an online petition, currently just short of 50,000 signatures, calling to stop the auction. Carter and his staff have received a lot of hate mail, including death threats.

Carter says many of those who object are not educated in the role that hunting plays in conservation. A habitat can only sustain a certain population, he says, and any excess can be harvested and used to raise money through selling things like hunting licenses and permits.

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The winner of the Dallas Safari Club's auction will hunt a specially selected rhino. Namibia's Department of Wildlife looks for a rhino that's too old to breed — and too aggressive to stay in the herd. When black rhinos get older, Carter says, they remain territorial and sometimes kill younger rhino bulls and calves. He says the department often removes these rhinos for the protection of the population anyway.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledges the practice can be helpful, reports The Washington Post :

"The removal of limited numbers of males has been shown to stimulate population growth in some areas," according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Removing specific individuals from a population can result in reduced male fighting, shorter calving intervals and reduced juvenile mortality."

Carter hopes the permit will sell between $225,000 to $1 million at the auction and says all the proceeds will go back to Namibia wildlife, earmarked for black rhinos. The Dallas Safari Club won't make a penny off of the fundraiser, and the auctioneer isn't even charging a fee.

"It's all, 100-percent, going straight to conservation," he says.

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Black rhino hunting permit auctioned for $350,000

DALLAS (AP) — A permit to hunt an endangered African black rhino sold for $350,000 at a Dallas auction held to raise money for conservation efforts but criticized by wildlife advocates.

Steve Wagner, a spokesman for the Dallas Safari Club, which sponsored the closed-door event Saturday night, confirmed the sale of the permit for a hunt in the African nation of Namibia. He declined to name the buyer.

The Safari Club's executive director, Ben Carter, has defended the auction, saying all money raised will go toward protecting the species. He also said the rhino that the winner will be allowed to hunt is old, male and nonbreeding — and that the animal was likely to be targeted for removal anyway because it was becoming aggressive and threatening other wildlife.

But the auction drew howls from critics, including wildlife and animal rights groups, and the FBI said it was investigating death threats against members of the club.

Officials from the Humane Society and the International Fund for Animal Welfare have said that while culling can be appropriate in abundant animal populations, all black rhinos should be protected, given their endangered status.

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.

Critics have also said any hunting of a rhino sends a bad message to the public.

"This auction is telling the world that an American will pay anything to kill their species," Jeffrey Flocken, North American regional director of the Massachusetts-based IFAW, said this past week. "This is, in fact, making a spectacle of killing an endangered species."

The auction took place in downtown Dallas under tight security. Organizers hoped to at least break the previous high bid for one of the permits in Namibia, which was $223,000, and had said the amount could be as high as $1 million. The nation offers five permits each year, and the one auctioned Saturday was the first to be made available for purchase outside of Namibia.

The winning bidder could have come from anywhere in the world, and at least some bidders were expected to enter by phone.

About 40 protesters gathered early Saturday evening outside the convention center where the auction and a pre-auction dinner were to take place. They held signs and chanted. Most dispersed by just after 6 p.m. CST.

Jim and Lauren Ries traveled with their children from Atlanta to protest the auction of the rare black rhino hunting permit in Dallas. Jim Ries said it was his son Carter, 12, and daughter Olivia, 11, who pushed for them to go and participate.

"We heard what the Dallas Safari Club was doing and we thought it was just wrong that they were auctioning off to kill a black rhino and we really got upset that they were thinking this," Carter Ries said.

Jim Ries said his children are passionate about animal conservation and were working to help adopt cheetahs in Africa. The family started a nonprofit called One More Generation, dedicated to saving endangered species.

"There's less than 5,000 black rhinos left on the planet," the father said, "and if our kids ever want to see a rhino left in the wild, we can't be pulling the trigger on every one we say is too old to breed."

Poachers long have targeted all species of rhino, primarily for its horn, which is valuable on the international black market. Made of the protein keratin, the chief component in fingernails and hooves, the horn has been used in carvings and for medicinal purposes, mostly in Asia. The near-extinction of the species also has been attributed to habitat loss.

Associated Press video journalist John Mone contributed to this report. Graczyk reported from Houston.

Follow Nomaan Merchant on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nomaanmerchant .

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January 8, 2014

Texas Club Auctions Rhino Hunt Permit in Bid to Protect Species

The Dallas Safari Club will auction a permit to hunt a black rhino in Namibia, possibly fetching up to $1 million with proceeds going to protect the endangered animals in a move seen by some animal rights groups as ethically dubious conservation.

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Dallas Safari Club will auction a permit to hunt a black rhino in Namibia, possibly fetching up to $1 million with proceeds going to protect the endangered animals in a move seen by some animal rights groups as ethically dubious conservation.

The license being auctioned on Saturday is supposed to allow for the killing of a single, post-breeding bull, with Namibian wildlife officials on hand for the hunt to make sure an appropriate animal is selected.

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The club, opening its annual convention in Dallas on Thursday, expects the permit to bring $250,000 to $1 million. The hunt will help in managing the population and provide an underfunded Namibian government hard cash in the expensive battle to thwart poachers, it said.

"The whole purpose of the auction is to raise as much money as possible to ensure that the black rhino population continues to grow," club executive director Ben Carter said.

"These bulls no longer contribute to the growth of the population and are in a lot of ways detrimental to the growth of the population because black rhinos are very aggressive and territorial. In many cases, they will kill younger, non-breeding bulls and have been known to kill calves and cows."

There are about 25,000 rhinos in Africa - 20,000 white rhinos and 5,000 black rhinos - with the majority in South Africa. Namibia is one of the leading habitats after that. Both countries allow for a handful of regulated rhino hunts each year with proceeds going to fund conservation.

Rhino protection has grown more expensive in the last few years due to a surge in poaching fueled by international crime syndicates to feed demand in places such as Vietnam, where horn is used as a traditional medicine and sold at prices higher than gold.

Wayne Pacelle, chief executive and president of The Humane Society of the United States, said the group has a general objection to trophy hunting and sees as morally questionable raising money for conservation by selling permits to kill endangered species.

"Killing an animal as a head-hunting exercise is archaic and inhumane," Pacelle said. "We can't just cherry-pick the perfect set of facts to justify this gambit."

Tom Milliken, leader of the elephant and rhino program for the international wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, said Namibia had 1,750 black rhino as of the end of 2012 and the population has been steadily increasing under good management and protection.

"TRAFFIC believes Namibia has demonstrated a sound conservation policy for its rhinos over the years and does not oppose Namibia's legitimate execution of its hunting quota which was approved through an international CITES oversight process," Milliken said in an email.

CITES stands for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and is a global regulator.

Nearly 950 rhino were killed by poachers in South Africa in 2013, its environment ministry said. In Namibia, little poaching has occurred over the past decade, with only 10 animals killed since 2006 - half of which were last year, TRAFFIC said.

Up until about 2010, only a handful rhinos were poached in Africa but the number shot up when rumors circulated about the same time in Vietnam that a minister's relative was cured of cancer by rhino horn. There is no basis in science to support the claim.

(Additional reporting by Servaas van den Bosch in Windhoek; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Andrew Hay)

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Permit to hunt black rhino auctioned for $350,000

By dallasnews Administrator

10:03 PM on Jan 11, 2014 CST

A permit to hunt an endangered African black rhino has sold for $350,000 at a closely watched auction that’s been criticized by wildlife and animal rights groups.

The Dallas Safari Club and the African nation of Namibia auctioned the permit Saturday to raise money for efforts to protect the black rhino.

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Safari Club spokesman Steve Wagner confirmed the sale of the permit at the closed-door event. He declined to name the buyer.

The auction has drawn howls from critics, including wildlife and animal rights groups, and the FBI last week said it was investigating death threats against members of the club.

Ben Carter, executive director of the Safari Club, defended the auction. He said all money raised will go toward rhino conservation efforts. He also said the rhino that the winner will hunt is old, male and non-breeding — and that the animal was likely to be targeted for removal anyway because it was becoming aggressive and threatening other wildlife.

video.DSC.html

Carter added that wildlife experts say culling a herd is an acceptable habitat management practice.

“In most cases, this animal is detrimental,” Carter said. “He’s past his prime.”

But critics have questioned that logic. Officials from the Humane Society and the International Fund for Animal Welfare have said that while culling can be appropriate in abundant animal populations, all black rhinos should be protected, given their endangered status.

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.

Critics have also said any hunting of a rhino sends a bad message to the public.

“This auction is telling the world that an American will pay anything to kill their species,” Jeffrey Flocken, North American regional director of the Massachusetts-based IFAW, said earlier this week. “This is, in fact, making a spectacle of killing an endangered species.”

The auction took place Saturday night in downtown Dallas under tight security and behind closed doors. Organizers got their wish to at least break the previous high bid for one of the permits in Namibia, which is $223,000. The nation offers five permits a year, and the one auctioned Saturday was the first to be made available for purchase outside of Namibia.

The winning bidder could have come from anywhere in the world, and at least some bidders were expected to enter by phone.

About 40 protesters gathered early Saturday evening outside the convention center where the auction and a pre-auction dinner took place. They held signs and chanted. Most dispersed by just after 6 p.m.

Jim and Lauren Ries traveled with their children from Atlanta to protest the auction of the rare black rhino hunting permit in Dallas. Jim Ries said it was his son Carter, 12, and daughter Olivia, 11, who pushed for them to go and participate.

“We heard what the Dallas Safari Club was doing, and we thought it was just wrong that they were auctioning off to kill a black rhino, and we really got upset that they were thinking this,” Carter Ries said.

Jim Ries said his children are passionate about animal conservation and were working to help adopt cheetahs in Africa. The family started a nonprofit called One More Generation, dedicated to saving endangered species.

“There’s less than 5,000 black rhinos left on the planet,” the father said, “and if our kids ever want to see a rhino left in the wild, we can’t be pulling the trigger on every one we say is too old to breed.”

Safari Club director Carter said he and club members were deluged in the days before the auction by angry messages, including the death threats.

“It appears to be an orchestrated series from people who are strongly anti-hunting,” Carter said.

Poachers long have targeted all species of rhino, primarily for its horn, which is valuable on the international black market. Made of the protein keratin, the chief component in fingernails and hooves, the horn has been used in carvings and for medicinal purposes, mostly in Asia. The near-extinction of the species also has been attributed to habitat loss.

Nomaan Merchant

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The Associated Press

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Endangered Species

Poachers, not big game hunters, are the real threat to endangered rhinos [updated].

Many conservationists were outraged when the Dallas Safari Club auctioned off the right to kill a critically endangered black rhino. But a legal hunt might just help the species—and won't hurt the bigger fight against poaching

There are just 5,000 black rhinos left in the world, which is why conservationists are so angry about a legal hunt

Once hundreds of thousands of black rhinoceroses roamed much of southern Africa . But since the 1960s, their numbers have dropped sharply , thanks largely to poaching, since their horns are highly valued in traditional medicine. Today there are just about 5,000 black rhinos left, living on a fraction of their old territory. That makes them a critically endangered species, just a couple of stops away from becoming extinct.

So it may not be surprising that many conservationists were outraged when they heard that the Dallas Safari Club (DSC)—a Texan group for big game hunters—had auctioned off the legal right to hunt and kill a black rhino in the southern African country of Namibia. The cost: $350,000, won by an unknown bidder. More surprising, the group says the auction was done in the name of conservation, with the money going to support conservation efforts in Namibia. To save the black rhinos, they have to kill one.

That seems absurd to conservationists like Jeffrey Flocken, the North American regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a major anti-poaching group. Last week on his blog Flocken wrote :

All the DSC is accomplishing is kicking up more enthusiasm for hunting in an era when conservationists are struggling to prevent mass extinctions. Instead of helping the conservation cause, as they claim to be doing, the Dallas Safari Club is sending the message that killing endangered animals is not only fun, but conscientious as well.

(MORE: After Syria, Hillary Clinton Talks Wildlife Trafficking at the White House )

Flocken wasn’t the only one to be angered by the move: the FBI is investigating alleged death threats made against the club, and a few dozen people gathered on Jan. 11 outside the auction to voice their opposition. Though DSC said the auction and accompanying convention had record attendance, the winning bid was much less than the $1 million organizers had hoped to raise. “There’s no question in my mind that the negative publicity dissuaded some people from bidding,” Richard Cheatham, the DSC’s volunteer general counsel, told the Dallas Morning News .

Park rangers and wildlife officials in Namibia—which is considered a model for its success in combating poaching—will benefit from the $350,000 raised at the DSC auction. But surely, with just 5,000 black rhinos left living in the wild, can it possibly serve the species to allow one of them to be hunted and killed? Conservationists are meant to do just that—conserve. What role then does killing of any kind have.

But the situation might not be as clear-cut as that. The permit auctioned off by the DSC is one of five made available each year by Namibia, and it stipulates that only an older male black rhino—past the age of reproduction—is allowed to be killed. More than that, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  (FWS)—which deals with endangered species—removing a handful of such older males may help the larger population survive:

Black rhinos are very territorial. The removal of post-reproductive males can reduce competition with younger bulls, potentially providing those younger bulls with a greater opportunity to reproduce.

(MORE: Obama Moves to Fight Wildlife Trafficking in Africa. But the Real Work Is in Asia

The Namibian government tracks all known black rhinos in the country, making it possible—according to FWS—to select the specific individuals that can be safely and productively removed from the population. It’s not a surefire thing—M. Sanjayan, the lead scientist at the Nature Conservancy, compares the idea of “sustainable hunting” to trying to fight global warming by recycling. It won’t hurt the cause, but it won’t do a whole lot either.

Conservationists might worry that any trophies—basically rhino body parts—taken from the hunt might enter the black market, encouraging further killing, but the FWS notes that selling such a memento would be a violation of the Endangered Species Act or the Lacey Act, both of which carry penalties of prison time and large fines. It’s almost certain that any trophy taken would end up stuffed and mounted on the hunter’s wall, not ground up to be sold for traditional medicine.

As for the idea that a legal black rhino hunt would directly lead to more poaching, poachers don’t need any more encouragement than they already have. Rhino horns can be worth as much as $300,000 on the black market, while the criminal penalties for poaching or trafficking in many African countries is little more than a fine . There’s a reason wildlife trafficking is now a $7-$10 billion market, making it the fifth most lucrative illegal enterprise in the world—and one that global criminal syndicates are now getting involved in. While Namibia takes good care of its endangered species—and reaps the tourism benefits —rangers in many African nations are hopelessly outgunned by increasingly sophisticated poachers. The result is a catastrophe—last year a record number of rhinos were killed in South Africa, with nearly a thousand poached for their horns, up from just 22 a decade ago. One highly regulated hunt in Namibia won’t change the bloodbath, and will at least supply rangers with some of the funds needed to even the odds.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t something ethically icky about choosing to spend $350,000—plus expenses—to hunt and kill one of the last 5,000 or so black rhinos left on this planet, no matter the higher purpose. And there’s a legitimate concern that any form of legal hunting will hurt the global effort to reduce the demand for wild animal products, which is growing rapidly in Asian countries like China. Sanjayan notes that when the Asian public is asked where the ivory tusks used to make traditional medicine products come from, they believe that there’s simply found on animals that have died naturally, not ones that were hunted and killed. “If the U.S. is allowing this to happen, it’s very difficult with a uniform voice to plead with our Asian counterparts not to buy rhino horns,” he says. “It confuses the message.”

I know why people were so instinctively angry when news came out that a hunting club had put a bounty on a blameless rhino. But the truth is that every rhino, elephant and other ivory carrying species already has a bounty on its head—and will until the world gets serious about fighting wildlife trafficking. “In the long run we have to fight the demand for ivory,” says Sanjayan. That’s where the anger should really be directed.

(MORE: At CGI, a Commitment to Stop the Bloody Slaughter of African Elephants )

Update 1/13/14, 4:57 PM:  I want to add a response from Dr. Rosie Cooney of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s oldest and largest conservation group. She notes that the IUCN is supportive of the auction, arguing that what the DSC is doing will not increase the number of black rhinos that will be killed—Namibia selects five to be culled each year—and that the auction at least allows more money to be directed towards wildlife protection:

I’m afraid while it would be nice to be able to recommend alternative approaches for conservation that don’t involve killing animals (even those that will no longer contribute to population growth), we view trophy hunting as playing an important and generally effective role in conservation over large areas of Africa in particular, with important local livelihood benefits in some contexts, such as in Namibia. Tourism can be a very effective and successful approach in certain circumstances, and in Namibia is widely employed alongside trophy hunting, or in areas that have previously generated revenue from trophy hunting after they reach a certain level of social and infrastructure development. However, successful tourism relies on a high level of capacity, capital, infrastructure, large wildlife populations, political stability and a scenic environment – all of which may be lacking; and it generally generates considerably greater environmental impact (through roads and infrastructure, water use, rubbish generation etc) than limited, carefully managed hunting.

In this case, a $350,000 hunt might be the best option available.

Permit to hunt an endangered black rhino is auctioned off for $350,000

By Katie Drummond

Source Associated Press | Image Wikipedia

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A mere 5,000 African black rhinos are now estimated to live in the wild, but that isn't stopping a Texas-based group from killing one of the endangered animals. In a closed auction held this weekend, the  Dallas Safari Club auctioned off a permit to hunt a rhino in Namibia for a whopping $350,000.

The winner of the auction, which was first announced late last year, hasn't been identified. But their bid breaks the previous record for a Namibia black rhino hunting permit — five of which are doled out by the country each year — by more than $100,000. Those who purchase the permits are only allowed to hunt from a preselected group of rhinos, largely comprised of older male animals no longer capable of breeding.

Despite that caveat, and assurances from the hunting group that proceeds from the auction will go to conservation efforts, the event hasn't exactly been met with plaudits from animal advocacy groups like the Humane Society and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). "This auction is telling the world that an American will pay anything to kill their species," Jeffrey Flocken of the IFAW told the  Associated Press of the event. "This is, in fact, making a spectacle of killing an endangered species."

"An American will pay anything to kill their species."

Members of the Dallas Safari Club have defended the auction, largely on the grounds that significant financial resources are required to help save endangered black rhinos. They've also noted that the older males being hunted under the permits tend to become aggressive and territorial, and are often culled by wildlife officials in an effort to protect younger rhinos. "The removal of limited numbers of males has been shown to stimulate population growth in some areas,"  reads a statement from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which advised the club on permits required for the auction's winner to import any trophy derived from the hunt. "Removing specific individuals from a population can result in reduced male fighting, shorter calving intervals and reduced juvenile mortality."

This particular hunt might be a tightly controlled one, but poachers remain the primary threat to black rhino populations throughout Africa. Rhino horns, often used in medicine, can sell for $30,000 a pound in some regions, and poaching has slashed black rhino populations from around 70,000 in the 1970's. The US government last year  launched a $10 million anti-poaching effort to help address the crisis.

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How hunting saves animals.

Dallas Safari Club worked with Namibian wildlife officials to auction a hunt of a black rhino, the most endangered of the rhino species. They expected to raise as much as $1 million from the auction with 100 percent of the proceeds going to rhino conservation efforts. Read More

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The ultimate pursuit in hunting: sheep.

Permits to hunt bighorn sheep are auctioned for hundreds of thousands of dollars — and that money has helped revive wild sheep populations and expand their territory. Read More

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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wants people who eat meat to hunt for their own food, or at least get familiar with where their dinner lives. Watch Now

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In Response to Responsive Management- Hunters’ Contributions to U.S. Wildlife Conservation “Hunters do nothing for conservation”. That is a quote from a comment on DSC Foundation’s post about lion hunting and lion conservation. We all immediately recognize the absurdity of the comment, but it is often the default retort from the anti-hunting crowd and too often we let it slide without rebuttal. Read More

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Dallas Safari Club Has It All Wrong

Humane Society International

Rhinos are disappearing. Bob Koons

On January 11, 2014, the Dallas Safari Club auctioned off a permit to hunt a black rhino in Namibia. The winner paid US $350,000. The black rhino is a critically endangered species, facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. About 1,700 black rhinos live in Namibia and fewer than 5,000 exist in the world.

Q: The Dallas Safari Club says the US $350,000 will go to rhino conservation. Is that true?

A: There is no guarantee that the money will be used to conserve black rhinos. It will go to Namibia’s “Game Products Trust Fund,” a general pot of money allocated to all manner of projects—including those that have nothing to do with rhinos, and, in fact, could even be harmful to rhinos, such as “rural development.” The group that decides which projects will be funded is, comprised of diverse interests including community representatives, and Ministries of Agriculture and Finance.

It’s not too late. Urge the U.S. FWS to deny a rhino trophy import permit .

Q: Does killing one male black rhino harm the survival of the species?

A: Yes. The survival of critically endangered species depends on maintaining genetic diversity. The removal of even one rhino will remove that individual’s future genetic contribution to the population, thus reducing genetic diversity. This increases the extinction risk for the species.

Q: But I thought the rhino to be killed is old, no longer fertile, “post-reproductive,” and therefore “surplus.”

A: No, that is not true. Old, sick rhinos are not the ones trophy hunters want to kill; they want to kill a rhino in his prime. And the rhino targeted to be killed, while older, is dominant. Like a lot of mammals, male rhinos fight one another to achieve and maintain dominance. Male rhinos continue to breed throughout their lives until they become too old and sick to maintain their dominance.

Q: The DSC says the rhino to be killed is dangerous to other rhinos, or a “rogue.” Is that true?

A: Black rhinos fight one another to achieve and maintain dominance—it’s a natural behavior that ensures the fittest males will breed, thus enhancing the genetic fitness of the species as a whole and ensuring its continued survival.

Q: What does killing the fittest male mean to the future survival of the species?

A: Nature has created a mechanism to ensure that the most fit male black rhinos rise to dominance and pass their fit genes onto the next generation. If these rhinos are killed and prevented from continuing to pass their fit genes along, the species weakens and becomes more susceptible to extinction.

Q: How much money would a hunter need to contribute to Namibia to offset the killing of a black rhino?

A: No amount of money will offset the death of a member of a critically endangered species in terms of the survival of the species.

Q: Is it true that killing the older male black rhino will allow the black rhino population size to increase?

A: Black rhino populations can be manipulated to improve population growth rates. But this can be achieved without killing any members of the species. Black rhinos should be allowed to maintain their natural behaviors, including the ability of the fittest males to achieve and maintain breeding dominance, as this strengthens the genetic fitness of the species as a whole and ensures its continued survival. To do otherwise is a form of human domestication.

Please take urgent action to help and share on Facebook and Twitter to ask your friends to do the same. Then, please consider donating to help us stop wildlife abuse.

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IRF Statement on Hunt of Namibian Black Rhino

• While the International Rhino Foundation does not condone the hunt of a Namibian rhino bull under the permit auctioned by the Dallas Safari Club, it is legal under Namibian and United States law, as well as under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
• We respect Namibia’s efforts to maintain a healthy rhino population and raise money for the important work of conserving the species, even when its decisions are controversial.
• The fate of one hunted rhino pales in comparison to the nearly 500 rhinos lost to illegal poaching in South Africa alone this year and to escalating poaching losses in Namibia and other range countries where rhinos once thrived but now are barely hanging on.
• We stand to lose a century of rhino conservation success in Africa in the next few years if we can’t stop, or slow, rhino poaching now . This is the real issue .
• CITES issues both Namibia and South Africa an export quota of up to five hunter-taken black rhinos per year. This was, however, was the first time that a permit has been offered outside of Namibian borders — and the first time that such a hunt has received this level of international attention.
• Where trophy hunting takes place, inviolate rules must be in place to ensure that income from hunts is returned to rhino population sites to meet conservation needs, such as protection and biological management.

INTERNATIONAL RHINO FOUNDATION STATEMENT Much media attention is being directed this week to Corey Knowlton’s hunt of a Namibian black rhino, using the permit he purchased at auction from the Dallas Safari Club in 2014. The International Rhino Foundation does not condone the hunt, but recognizes that it is legal under Namibian and United States law, as well as under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). We respect Namibia’s efforts to maintain a healthy rhino population and raise money for the important work of conserving the species. That said, we note that the fate of one hunted rhino pales in comparison to the nearly 500 rhinos lost to illegal poaching in South Africa alone this year and to escalating poaching losses in Namibia and other range countries where rhinos once thrived but now are barely hanging on. The International Rhino Foundation is an apolitical, scientifically oriented conservation organization that funds and operates rhino conservation programs in Africa and Asia. The sale of a critically endangered species for a trophy hunt has brought forth a range of emotions and arguments. It is a complex and multi-faceted issue with the following points to consider. We believe that the facts pertaining to intra-species fighting as a justification for the original permit auction were overstated. The original argument was that an old, geriatric bull would be hunted. If this were so, then we would agree that young bulls naturally displace old bulls without human intervention (in normal, viable rhino populations) to maximize the ratio of effective male breeders in those populations. The issue would be more about what happens to the naturally displaced old bulls that no longer are breeding.  In a strictly genetic sense, they can be considered non-essential to population survival and, in situations where the rhinos are stocked at or near an area’s ecological carrying capacity (which ideally they should not be), then these bulls may be eating browse that younger animals need to maintain reproduction and to minimize loss of genetic diversity in the population. Any male that loses body condition can sometimes be gored in interactions with younger bulls when there is a high level of competition for food resources. The argument for hunting is that it is more humane to use a safari hunter’s bullet on such geriatric rhinos to avoid a lingering death and to generate funds for rhino conservation (assuming that a mechanism to return such income to conservation is in place). A rationale for safari hunting of such animals must be clearly and accurately presented with clear criteria to identify which rhino bulls are geriatric and/or truly not essential for the population’s survival. The International Rhino Foundation recognizes that, if they are not poached or killed due to other reasons, black rhino bulls eventually reach an age at which they are marginalized in their population and do not contribute reproductively. If such bulls can be objectively identified, then an argument could be made that the safari hunting of these animals will have no negative biological impact on the rhino population and in specific circumstances may alleviate problems such as overstocking and fighting within species, although these should not be common problems in well-managed rhino populations. What is essential is that inviolate rules be in place to ensure that income from hunts is returned to rhino population sites to meet conservation needs, such as protection and biological management. Recently, there has been an increasing willingness within CITES to allow for trade in products from well-managed populations of endangered species. Trophy hunting of black rhinos in Namibia is not new; CITES issues both Namibia and South Africa an export quota of up to five hunter-taken black rhinos per year. This Dallas Safari Club hunt, however, was the first time that a permit has been offered outside of Namibian borders, and the first time that such a hunt has received this level of international attention. But let’s talk about the issue that is being sidelined by the uproar over the hunt of this one animal: rhinos are under siege. To-date this year, nearly 500 rhinos have been poached in South Africa, including many reproductive or pre-reproductive females. We stand to lose a century of rhino conservation success in Africa in the next few years if we can’t stop, or slow, rhino poaching now. This is the real issue. Poachers typically operate as small, but well-armed gangs, sometimes backed by international organized crime syndicates. Their automatic weapons can take down a rhino as readily as a ranger, and they are not averse to murdering anyone who stands between them and their payday. Some professional poachers prefer heavy caliber sporting rifles, which have a greater knockdown effect on rhinos than AK-47s. The high-stakes black market trade in rhino horn has been linked to international terrorism, including events such as the mall attack in Nairobi. In July 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order to combat wildlife trafficking, recognizing illegal wildlife trafficking as an escalating international crisis and establishing a task force to deal with the issue. Sadly, all wild populations of rhino are at serious risk from poaching. Namibia lost one rhino to poaching 2012, nine in 2013 and 23 in 2014. To-date this year, Namibia has lost at least 12 more rhinos to poaching, and possibly many more. This relatively “low” poaching rate (compared to South Africa) is most likely due to a combination of proactive protection and management, a law-abiding society, inaccessibility of rhino sites, and luck. But experience has shown that situations in Africa can change on a dime. It is a valid question to ask if it is worth sacrificing one rhino to contribute financially to the conservation and protection of a larger population. The International Rhino Foundation has funded and operated rhino protection and conservation programs in Africa and Asia for more than 20 years. Rhino conservation is expensive. Every year, we scramble to raise enough funds to support our work. The political and economic realities in the range countries (national commitment vs. corruption, wildlife-based land-use vs. subsistence farming, etc.) are the factors that really determine the fate of rhinos. National contributions to conservation budgets, in countries such as Namibia, considerably exceed contributions from the international donor community. It is inevitable that hunts such as this one would generate confusion and concern among many members of the public who are aware of the plight of the world’s rhino species. But it is also a reality that financial constraints and land-use challenges within the rhino range countries compel authorities in those countries to consider various income-generating opportunities even if they involve limited, sustainable hunting of endangered species such as rhinos. It will not be possible for international conservation agencies to engage with and positively influence such countries in their rhino conservation endeavors unless objective consideration and respect is shown for their rhino management decisions, even those that are internationally controversial. Finding middle ground between the different perspectives on rhino hunting is very difficult. Our position is therefore based purely on the optimization of conservation advantage for rhino species within their wild populations. The International Rhino Foundation will work with its international partners to regularly review the front-line conservation outcomes of safari hunts of rhinos in South Africa and Namibia and will draw attention to any negative outcomes or irregularities. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION State of the Rhino Five living rhino species — white, black, greater one-horned, Javan and Sumatran — can still be found in Africa and Asia, and it’s conceivable that they once numbered in the millions. Unfortunately, the global population has plummeted to less than 30,000 animals due to poaching, trophy hunting and habitat loss. Two species, the Javan and the Sumatran, now number less than 150 individuals combined, and could easily disappear within our lifetime. Black Rhinos During the last century, the black rhino suffered the most drastic decline in total numbers of all rhino species. Between 1970 and 1992, the population of this species decreased by 96%. In 1970, it was estimated that there were approximately 65,000 black rhinos in Africa. But, by 1993, there were only 2,300 surviving in the wild. Intensive anti-poaching efforts have had encouraging results since 1996. Numbers have been recovering and still are increasing very slowly through targeted conservation management, including strategic translocations to consolidate isolated populations, active management and, in some countries, de-horning. The wild population of black rhinos is now approximately 5,055. Namibia’s black rhino population of approximately 1,800 animals is the second largest next to South Africa’s, followed by Kenya and Zimbabwe. The black rhino was listed in Appendix I of CITES in 1977 and under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1980. The species is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The International Rhino Foundation’s Black Rhino Program The International Rhino Foundation was founded in response to the black rhino poaching crisis in Zimbabwe in the 1990s, when black rhinos were nearly wiped out by large-scale, organized poaching, leaving only 370 animals by 1993. By 2000, the population recovered to approximately 450 individuals, and as of today, Zimbabwe’s black rhinos still number around 450 animals, representing the fourth largest black rhino population in Africa. These rhinos are spread over private and state-owned lands, with almost 400 black rhinos and 227 white rhinos in the South–East Lowveld private conservancies, where we work through our partner, the Lowveld Rhino Trust . Conservation efforts in the Lowveld have helped increase the region’s black rhino population from 4% of the national total in 1990 to 88% at present, which represents about 7% of the continental total. This incredibly significant increase has been achieved through biological management; strategic translocations of rhinos; support for anti-poaching activities; informant systems; community benefits schemes; working with authorities to track, apprehend and prosecute poachers; and other non-consumptive means. Our team in Zimbabwe operates under difficult and often unpredictable economic and political conditions. In South Africa, numerous factors have combined to create the poaching crisis we face today. It has developed over a period of time, with an increased presence of Chinese and other Asian business interests. The International Rhino Foundation recognizes that dealing with the complexities of the poaching crisis in South Africa is well beyond the manageable interests of a small organization like ours. We have focused on a small niche: providing training and equipment to rangers in under-represented areas and exploring the use of trackers dogs to combat poaching. Rhino Horn Trade Rhino horn has been used in China for traditional medicine for centuries, and later spread to Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. The newest market for rhino horn is Vietnam, where it is used as a high-value gift item, as a purported hangover preventative, and tragically, sold as a “cure” for cancer. Vietnam has been the world’s leading rhino horn consumer since 2005. Vietnam joined CITES in 1994, and while the country prohibits domestic trade, there is no meaningful enforcement. China joined CITES in 1981 and prohibited all domestic trade in rhino horn and registered and sealed all stockpiles in 1993. However, China is still the second-largest destination for illegal horn. Approximately 100 white rhinos have been imported by China from South Africa; TRAFFIC helped to expose a plan to farm rhino in 2010. Rhino horn markets have been shut down in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. All three countries joined CITES and then subsequently banned rhino horn from their pharmacopoeia. Korea and Taiwan were threatened with Pelly Amendment sanctions by the U.S. prior to banning rhino horn use. Petitions for Pelly Amendment Sanctions have been filed in the last 18 months for Vietnam (Environmental Investigation Agency and International Fund for Animal Welfare) and for Mozambique (International Rhino Foundation and Environmental Investigation Agency) — the trafficking hub of the current African rhino and elephant poaching crises. Both petitions are under review by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. According to TRAFFIC , rhino horn has been classified as a “heat-clearing” drug with detoxifying and fever-reducing properties, and typically was combined with other medicinal ingredients for treatment of a wide range of conditions. Studies in China, where rhino horn is permitted to be used in research only to identify viable substitutes for it, found statistically significant pharmacological effects for rhino horn: anti-pyretic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, pro-coagulant and others. In contrast, studies done in the United Kingdom and South Africa found no pharmacological effects at all. CITES The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. Species are proposed for inclusion in or deletion from the CITES Appendices at meetings of the Conference of the Parties (CoP), which are held every three years. The most recent CoP was held in Bangkok in March. Namibia joined CITES in 1990. There has been a recent, increased willingness within the CoP to allow for trade in products from well-managed populations. CITES issues Namibia and South Africa export quotas of up to five hunter-taken black rhinos per year. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Division of Management Authority has issued a permit to the Dallas Safari Club to return a rhino trophy to the U.S. In its March 2015 statement , FWS said “the import of two sport-hunted black rhinoceros trophies from Namibia will benefit conservation of the species.” Under the Endangered Species Act, FWS authorizes imports for sport-hunted trophies of rhinos only when hunting in the country of origin is well-regulated and sustainable and benefits conservation of the species in question. “United States citizens make up a disproportionately large share of foreign hunters who book trophy hunts in Africa,” FWS Director Dan Ashe said. “That gives us a powerful tool to support countries that are managing wildlife populations in a sustainable manner and incentivize others to strengthen their conservation and management programs.” According to the statement, “the black rhino hunts associated with the imports of sport-hunted trophies are consistent with the conservation strategy of Namibia, a country whose rhino population is steadily increasing, and will generate a combined total of $550,000 for wildlife conservation, anti-poaching efforts and community development programs in Namibia.” In March 2013, FWS issued a permit for the importation of a sport-hunted black rhinoceros trophy taken in Namibia in 2009. According to its statement , FWS “granted this permit after an extensive review of Namibia’s black rhino conservation program, in recognition of the role that well-managed, limited sport hunting plays in contributing to the long-term survival and recovery of the black rhino in Namibia.”

8 thoughts on “ IRF Statement on Hunt of Namibian Black Rhino ”

Reblogged this on The Last Word and commented: How conservationists believe one old black rhino bull can help save the species in Namibia. ~ Andrew Wyatt

Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog .

Because something is legal it doesn’t mean it is right… slavery was once legal as well. And everything that Hitler did was legal in Germany. Legal does not always equal ethical or moral. Please please don’t give any positive credence to this abomination! It was a spoiled rich boy who was determined to “get intimate” with a rhino! Something that was missing from his collection of dusty heads on the wall of his trophy room. Ugh! Repugnant to those of us with intelligence and compassion and who spend time and money to try to SAVE species from extinction!

Reblogged this on Ashli SIsk and commented: “While the International Rhino Foundation does not condone the hunt of a Namibian rhino bull under the permit auctioned by the Dallas Safari Club, it is legal under Namibian and United States law, as well as under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). We respect Namibia’s efforts to maintain a healthy rhino population and raise money for the important work of conserving the species, even when its decisions are controversial. The fate of one hunted rhino pales in comparison to the nearly 500 rhinos lost to illegal poaching in South Africa alone this year and to escalating poaching losses in Namibia and other range countries where rhinos once thrived but now are barely hanging on.

This is a well written, thoughtful article. But I respectfully disagree with the presumptive argument that it’s justifiable to kill one rhino to save more. Why is the permit auctioned off to one person? Why is the presumption that the animal must die? Couldn’t this permit “auction” be advertised well in advance, to allow the collective public that is concerned with rhino conservation the time to raise the money to SAVE the animal? That would generate just as much media, press, attention, etc to the plight of the rhino, and it would give a lot of small donors the chance to band together for a great cause. Sortof a David Vs Goliath. I really think we need a paradigm shift when it comes to the conservation benefits of trophy hunting. I am CONFIDENT that if it’s handled right, all the benefits (and more) that come from the money raised due to trophy hunting, could be had WITHOUT killing the animal(s). We need creativity and out of the box thinking.

Compelling article. I had serious misgivings when I read the CITES decision. I have a hard time understanding how trophy hunting can help conserve a species. The argument that geriatric bulls would be the ones killed is all well and good — assuming the hunter knows the difference. Did Corey Knowlton kill a geriatric bull to anyone’s knowledge?

Truly disgusting and poor excuse – money can be raised in other ways. Trophy hunting is WRONG and to add insult to injury – a RHINO?

It’s been stated that ” the bull hunted by the Dallas Safari Club auction winner … aged at least 29 “(1). That is a a way to say they don’t know whether the rhino was in his 20s or in his 30s , furthermore: “Wild black rhinos can live to be 40 years of age. Removing a rhino that is less than forty years old — for example, a 30-year-old rhino — deprives the population of perhaps ten more years of genetic contribution, which is vital to the genetic diversity of this Critically Endangered species. Additionally, the fighting among wild black rhinos is a natural behavior which has evolved through millions of years of natural selection.” “Older male rhinos who survive these fights and other threats long enough to become old and dominant carry the most genetic fitness.” (2) There is no scientific evidence that male rhinos ever become infertile, no matter how old they are, the ‘old, post-breeding bull’ justification is not supported by science. (3) (1) http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/21/opinions/rhino-hunt-is-conservation/index.html (2), (3) http://annamiticus.com/2014/01/18/questionable-science-behind-controversial-rhino-hunt-namibia/

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