In order to save the black rhino, you have to be willing to kill the black rhino. That seems to be the philosophy of a Texas hunting club that is trying to raise money to hunt the endangered animal in Nambia.
The Dallas Safari Club said that it is auctioning off a permit to hunt an endangered black rhino in Nambia. The permit is expected to sell for at least $250,000, according to the club’s executive director Ben Carter, and could sell for as much as $1 million.
The money will go to The Conservation Trust Fund for Namibia’s Black Rhino.
Carter said: “First and foremost, this is about saving the black rhino. (The permit is expected) to sell for at least $250,000, possibly up to $1 million. The Conservation Trust Fund for Namibia’s Black Rhino will receive 100 percent of the sale price.”
Carter’s estimate on the price isn’t too far-fetched. As Yahoo News notes, a US hunter purchased a permit to hunt a black rhino in 2009 for $175,000.
Tim Van Norman of the Fish And Wildlife Service said that Nambia issues permits to kill five black rhinos per year. Van Norman said that hunting the older males can actually help the herd populate.
Van Norman said: “Black rhinos are very territorial so you will have an older male that is keeping younger males from reproducing… By removing these older males from the population, you get an increase in the production of calves. Younger males are able to impregnate the females that are in that area so you get more offspring than from some of these older males.”
Still, some people aren’t too happy to see a group of Texas Hunters fighting over the right to kill a black rhino.
Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the United States said that the auction was disturbing.
Pacelle said: “The world is seeing a concerted effort to preserve the very few black rhinos and other rhinos who are dodging poachers’ bullets and habitat destruction… The last thing they need are wealthy elites from foreign lands coming in to kill them for their heads.”
The auction will take place early next year.