Feds could force Dallas hunting club to scrap rhino hunt auctioned for $350G
Feds could force Dallas hunting club to scrap rhino hunt auctioned for $350G
FILE - This Aug. 28, 2013 file photo provided by Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo shows an Eastern black rhinoceros calf and its mother, 8-year-old Kapuki, at the zoo in Chicago.
A Dallas hunting club whose auction of a permit to kill an endangered black rhino in Africa drew widespread protests said Sunday it would cancel the hunt if a federal agency did not permit the winning bidder to bring the animal back to the U.S. as a trophy.
The Dallas Safari Club auctioned off the permit for $350,000 at a closed-door auction in January. Last spring, auction winner Corey Knowlton applied for a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would enable him to import the rhino's body following the hunt in Namibia. But he's still waiting to hear back.
The agency is applying extra scrutiny to Knowlton's request because of the rise in poaching, spokesman Gavin Shire told the Associated Press.
If the permit is denied, the safari club plans to refund Knowlton's money that was pledged to a rhino conservation fund in the southwestern African country.
"Most people that have an animal mounted, it's their memory of their experience," said Ben Carter, the safari club's executive director. "It's not always, 'Look at what I've shot.' When they look at it, they remember everything. That's what he bid the money on, that opportunity."
The wildlife agency began taking public comment on the permit application this month and has already heard from many of the groups that fervently opposed the auction.
The wildlife service expects to make a decision after the public comment period ends Dec. 8, taking into account the state of the herd in Namibia, where 1,800 of the world's 4,880 black rhinos live. The agency also is examining exactly how the auction funds would be administered.
Last year, the service granted a permit to import a sport-hunted black rhino taken in Namibia in 2009, but increased poaching since then may impact whether any more are approved, said Shire.
Each year, the Namibian government issues five black rhino hunting permits that fund efforts to protect the species. The program includes habitat improvement, hiring game scouts to monitor the rhinos, and removing the animals' horns to reduce their appeal to poachers.
"The aim is to re-invest these financial resources back to conservation, protected area management and rural community development," said Kenneth Uiseb, Namibia's director of wildlife monitoring and research.
But opponents of the auction say the programs are not worthwhile if they entail the killing of any endangered animal.
"Kill it to save it is not only cruel, it's not conservation," said Jeff Flocken, the North American regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "If black rhinos and other dwindling species are to have a future, people must be encouraged to value animals for their inherent worth alive, not their price tag when they are dead."
The safari club has said the hunt will involve one of five black rhinos selected by a committee and approved by the Namibian government. The five are to be older males that can't reproduce.
Namibia sold another hunting permit for $200,000 directly to Michael Luzich, a Las Vegas investment manager who is also seeking a permit to bring the trophy into the U.S., according to Shire.
But Luzich has received far less scrutiny than Knowlton, who said in January he hired full-time security because he received death threats after his name was leaked on the Internet.
Knowlton lives in Royse City, about 30 miles from Dallas, and leads international hunting trips for a Virginia-based company, The Hunting Consortium. He has killed more than 120 species, including the so-called big five in Africa a lion, a leopard, an elephant, a Cape buffalo and a rhinoceros, according to the company's website.
He did not return messages left by The Associated Press for this story, but told Dallas television station WFAA in January that he believed the hunt would be managed well.
"I'm a hunter," Knowlton told WFAA. "I want to experience a black rhino. I want to be intimately involved with a black rhino."
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The safari club has said the hunt will involve one of five black rhinos selected by a committee and approved by the Namibian government. The five are to be older males that can't reproduce.
"I want to experience a black rhino. I want to be intimately involved with a black rhino".
Good for you, tough guy! Grow some man-balls, strap on a loincloth, grab a hide shield, get a spear, and go over there and get a rhino on the rhinos' home ground. Pussy big game hunters and their trophies hanging on their walls.
What a bunch of asshatz. Disgusting.
Barbarians!
grab a hide shield, get a spear, and go over there and get a rhino on the rhinos' home ground.
Then, let's see how intimately involved you get!
Yeah, that would be after he gets out of his 40' motorhome, having drank an espresso made by his personal chef.
I equate this to those who(since 1980's) claim to have summited Mt. Everest(Chomolunga, Mother Goddess of the earth)
For $65,000 one can be placed at base camp, fed and cared for by catered feeding, equipted with all the gear they need, be short-roped to a highly skilled Sherpa climber, fed oxygen the whole way, and virtually dragged to the summit.
What are these hunters trying to prove anyway??
I think what people are missing , because this involves an endangered species is this is a Cull hunt , meaning these animals will be killed irregardless . Notice the article states these 5 animals are older non reproductive males , meaning they do not fit into the survival of the species, yet they do present a danger to those males that are capable of reproducing , just because a male cant reproduce , doesn't mean they don't get the urge to and the battles for reproductive rights can result in an injury to those that can reproduce putting them in the category of non reproductive.
these particular animals have to be assigned a monetary value, a value to the areas they live in so that the inhabitants have a stake in their protection. currently the only ones benefiting from their being poached is the poachers. During a government sponsored or sanctioned safari, its highly regulated and controlled , the proceeds from the permits and the money spent stays where its needed , most times trophy hunters get their trophy take a little of the meat , and the rest is USUALLY given to the local inhabitants, no waste. that's not even bringing up the funds brought into the local economy while these types of hunters are there .
Its a crappy situation for sure forthis endangered species, but thinking about it , isn't it better to bring in some much needed funding for their protection with this type of cull hunt ? or should the local government just do whats going to be done anyway at their own expense to protect the rhinos ?
and since I called this a cull hunt , don't mistake that as a "Canned " hunt , these animals are not caged or penned , they are still very much wild and roaming free , and all the nessisary skills of finding and tracking will need to be done, so fair chase is still at play.
I would say one will have to trust the biologists that made the recommendations on those 5 animals, I would assume that they , being this species is in trouble , been keeping records on individual animals for some time , especially since they are prone to being poached for their quasi medicinal reasons in the far east.
Like I said , the Nambian government has decided already , before this auction that these 5 animals were going to be culled irregardless, the animals fall within their jurisdiction so their laws apply . Its not poaching if its a hunt held under a governments regulations and rules .
My opinion is they took a very shitty situation , and found a way ,using science and biology , to best insure the survival of VIABLE reproduction capable of increasing the herd animals , and doing so on someone elses dime. Some times an animal becomes a detriment and endangers survival for the rest, as Ive already stated , this is but one factor in a large equation. unproductive or dangerous individual animals are routinely removed from herds for varying reasons , the fairytale ending is let the old buggars live out their lives wont work because nature made them to fill a specific purpose , roam around , and make baby rhinos , well time has removed one of those things according to the biologists watching them but they still have that urge to mate , and to fight for the right to mate with those capable of increasing the herd. other than another feasible and workable solution, this is one of the better options, unless of course someone that thinks they shouldn't be hunted wants to foot the bill , or try to keep a sexually aroused ,horney male rhino that cant reproduce away from the cows. I would actually pay to see someone try that.
at current there are 5 permits, the article states 2 are spoken for and what price was offered. nothing stopped the ARA's from participating in the bidding for the auctioned tag, they could have out bid and won it . they didn't and even if they did win it and didn't use it , the animal is still slated for culling if not from someone that bidded , by the government itself.
RL , in my humble opinion it is a good program , as stated the fees paid , will be covering habitat (Buying land for them), security ( fish and game people here in this country is the equivalent), more biological study on how best to ensure whats left has the best chance of NOT going extinct. it might already be too late and fate has been sealed on this species , but it is worth a try .
best way I can explain this is this way , if I had an old bull , and it went sterile , but it wouldn't let the new bull mate the cows , ild be having T-bone for supper for a long time so that the new bull would be getting some increasing my herd size.
JWC ill stand corrected , calling this a cull was using my own standards and what I have seen develop from when this story first broke back in jan. and my own understanding of the situation.
I will also admit to an educated assumption based on that the actual field biologists did their jobs and made the correct assessment that these 5 older males are in fact sterile and cant pass on their genetic material , unless your talking cloning ,something most likely achieved by science , study actual examination of the animal and knowledge of the animals behavior.
personally I think in this case , its already a sealed deal of extinction, the numbers are too low , the governments involved where these animals are don't have the resources needed to turn it around , and they also don't have enough of the peoples support in caring whether these animals survive or not , otherwise there wouldn't be any poaching to my way of thinking.
Im not a trophy hunter , I do hunt and for a couple different reasons for me , so I cannot refute or substantiate your claims fish as to the size of ones genetailia. what I will say is I will trust the science and knowledge of the local field biologists over emotional however heartfelt bloodyviolin strings being plucked. but I neither condone nor condemn trophy hunting , its just not for me .
Ive already pointed out how they can be a danger to those males that can reproduce ,a goring to the nads renders one usually incapable of reproducing , but lets say they stay in the herd , poachers know they are useless to reproduction , but which ones? think they will only go after these 5 , or are all the herd in danger now ? wishful thinking? no I think its using logic not emotional response to a shitty situation.
here is the logic I do see , 5 older non reproductive males if the reports are right , bringing in the needed resources to help the species in multiple ways at minimal financial cost to the government all it costs them is the paper the permits would be printed on. and from a logic standpoint , its a win for the government , its a win for the locals in more revenue and teaching them that these animals have more value as job producers than being poached and its a win for the species because they gain more habitat, protection , and study so that they MIGHT not go extinct , which as ive already said , I think if left alone they are doomed anyway. Got a better more feasible and workable plan? bring it forth .
and a side note on the actual article , all that's being applied for from the feds is a permit to IMPORT the trophy once the hunt takes place , it doesn't mean the hunt wont take place if the feds deny the permit to import , simply means the trophy would not be allowed into this country.
But I can see the club refunding the auction price if the trophy permit is denied , and that's left up to the guy that won the auction on what he wants to do then , still do the hunt and not bring the trophy home or cancel the hunt .
P.S. a trophy doesn't make it bigger.
