Black rhino downed by a Texas hunter for a hefty price tag has sparked controversy. Corey Knowlton, who is a member of The Dallas Safari Club, paid $350,000 to obtain a hunting license to kill a black rhinoceros in Northern Namibia on May 18.
Black rhino killed by a Texas hunter has angered many conservationists, and some are even crying. In January of 2014, a wealthy Dallas hunter named Corey Knowlton paid $350,000 at an auction held by the Dallas Safari Club for a permit to hunt a black rhinoceros in Namibia.
The move created so much controversy that the Texas club started receiving death and bomb threats. Despite the intimidation, in early March, with CNN cameras following him, the hunter flew to Namibia to track the animal down.
Corey Knowlton, whose father owns private energy firm BASA, answered his critics by saying that he is not a “bloodthirsty American hunter” eager to kill a rare creature, au contraire, he is doing what he can to save the animal from extinction.
The 36-year-old oil heir claimed that the money he paid for the license will be used by the government to pursue its anti-poaching efforts across the country. The famous hunter has another argument, the black rhino he paid to bag is old and is harming younger males. Black rhinos are considered as critically endangered, while the western black rhinoceros were declared extinct in 2011.
“For most of the 20th century the continental black rhino was the most numerous of all rhino species. Around 1900 there were probably several hundred thousand living in Africa. During the latter half of the 20th century their numbers were severely reduced from an estimated 70,000 in the late 1960s to only 10,000 to 15,000 in 1981. In the early 1990s the number dipped below 2,500, and in 2004 it was reported that only 2,410 black rhinos remained,” according to the International Rhino Foundation.
Moments after the trophy kill, Knowlton kneeled next to the rhino and said:
“I felt like from day one it was something benefiting the black rhino. Being on this hunt, with the amount of criticism it brought and the amount of praise it brought from both sides, I don’t think it could have brought more awareness to the black rhino.”
The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Jeff Flocken responded to the story with the following statement:
“I am deeply saddened, disappointed and incredulous that he sees this mission as contributing to the survival of endangered black rhinos.If you pay to take a human life and give to humanitarian causes, it does not make you a humanitarian. And paying money to kill one of the last iconic animals on earth does not make you a conservationist.”
What are your thoughts on the controversial hunt?
