Texas hunters pledge to save endangered black rhinos by killing one - Polidicks

[img]http://america.aljazeera.com/content/ajam/articles/2013/10/25/texas-hunters-pledgesavingblackrhinobykillingone/jcr:content/mainpar/adaptiveimage/src.adapt.960.high.1382757751118.jpg[/img] [quote]The Dallas Safari Club said Friday it aims to raise up to a million dollars for endangered black rhinoceroses by auctioning off a permit to kill one in Namibia. The move has raised the ire of wildlife preservation organizations, who question the move's ethics. Ben Carter, executive director of the Dallas Safari Club, told Agence France Presse the Namibian government "selected" his hunting club to auction a black rhino hunting permit for use in one of its national parks. Namibia has an annual quota to kill up to five black rhinos out of the southern African nation's herd population of 1,795 animals. "First and foremost, this is about saving the black rhino," Carter said. The permit is expected "to sell for at least $250,000, possibly up to $1 million," and will be auctioned off at the Club’s annual convention from Jan. 9-12 next year. The Conservation Trust Fund for Namibia's Black Rhino will receive 100 percent of the sale price, the Club said. In 2009, a similar permit fetched $175,000 for the Namibian Game Products Trust Fund, which pays for the species' conservation efforts, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). Black rhinos are internationally considered an endangered species. The World Wildlife Fund estimates only about 4,800 remain in Africa, where rhino horns are a coveted asset. Their value has spurred a lucrative black market in Asia, where some people believe they have special healing powers and the ability to cure cancer. Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reported daily attacks from poachers in South Africa kill a rhino almost every day. "Poachers come by helicopter and dart a rhino from the air with a powerful tranquilizer, a drug three thousand times more powerful than morphine,” he reported. "As (a rhino) succumbs to deep sedation, they take a chainsaw to her face. The machine's sharp teeth tear into her skull, removing her nasal cavities, exposing parts of her brain," he said. "(The horn) will be sold to a middle man for a small fortune."[/quote] [url]http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/25/texas-hunters-pledgesavingblackrhinobykillingone.html[/url] RIP poor rhino.

Holy shit rhinos are big.

Rhino Horn sells for anywhere from $50000/kg upwards. One rhino is a year's paycheck for most poachers. It's a wonder they're not already extinct.

[QUOTE]"As (a rhino) succumbs to deep sedation, they take a chainsaw to her face. The machine's sharp teeth tear into her skull, removing her nasal cavities, exposing parts of her brain," he said. "(The horn) will be sold to a middle man for a small fortune."[/QUOTE] Okay, the rhinos might be sedated, but that still doesn't make this any less horrifying.

[QUOTE]The Conservation Trust Fund for Namibia's Black Rhino will receive 100 percent of the sale price, the Club said.[/QUOTE] You're still kind of fueling the whole "Killing Rhino" problem and feeding the market.

This is actually a pretty neat idea IMO.

its clever, but it worries me that it might encourage it even more i mean lets say it sells for a million and people start seeing hunting black rhinos as even more exotic, then wouldnt there be even more demand for it in the black market or whatever?

This is like raising money for the civil rights movement by selling tickets to a lynch mob.

it'd be cool if a conservation group raised the money to buy it, then didn't use it/destroyed it. this is fucking stupid anyway

I wonder how that trust fund can accept that money and have a clear conscience. The entire idea of this is ridiculous - why preserve future black rhinos at the expense of one still living rhino? I get that hunters are not mindless killing machines and that while hunting for sport is something modern society looks down upon, responsible hunters are actually careful about animal numbers and how their sport impacts wildlife. But this is just ridiculous. If those hunters really wanted to make a difference but insisted on hunting. They could perhaps hunt animals in large/excess supply and ones that threaten local wildlife and use the sale of their meat/etc. to raise money for conservation of endangered animals. Shooting an endangered creature (regardless of whether the government issues permits for doing it or not) to save endangered creature makes no sense to me.

Why does my favorite animal always get treated like this

Holy shit poachers have helicopters? I always had the mental image that they were basically land pirate riding around in old range rovers shooting at valuable animals with old Enfield rifles and AK-47's.

I've seen some dumb shit in my time. The money raised will likely be thrown into what is basically a blackhole with no real effect on saving the rhino's. But I guess if you're rich you can do whatever you want nowdays...

Isn't the idea of this that they kill 1 rhino that was essentially bred specifically for the purpose of hunting it then the rangers use the money they raised to go and buy some drones or whatever they need.

Maybe a humanitarian millionaire will buy it and just destroy the permit.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;42661099]Holy shit poachers have helicopters? I always had the mental image that they were basically land pirate riding around in old range rovers shooting at valuable animals with old Enfield rifles and AK-47's.[/QUOTE] same here :v:

the needs a of the few outweigh the needs of the many.... think about it this way, if the rhinos become a commodity in living condition, then it would be worth it to protect them better, then with the greater cash flow and the large protection, they can combat poachers.. still I disagree with killing and chainsawing the thing to death for a fucking horn that's going to be ground up and huffed in some insane attempt to cure aids

[QUOTE=Sableye;42663535]the needs a of the few outweigh the needs of the many.... [/QUOTE] With a "herd population of 1,795 animals", there's not that much "many" that outweighs the few.

I place african wildlife hunters near the top of my "scum of the earth" list.

[QUOTE=Jamsponge;42660958]This is like raising money for the civil rights movement by selling tickets to a lynch mob.[/QUOTE] playing the devils advocate here, the tickets were gonna be used anyway, they're just getting the money for it for a good cause

Why don't we just hunt poachers to even it out?

It pisses me off so fucking much that there is such a market for their 'medicinal benefits'. If there wasn't a market there wouldn't be poaching, but I guess good luck getting superstitious ass people to stop clinging to their archaraic beliefs.

I'm dubious about that claimed figure who are these people who have the ability to have that much money, and also spend it in such an uneducated manner? It doesn't follow. Seriously there must be some other reason rhino horn fetches such a high price beyond dumb beliefs.

[QUOTE=JaegerMonster;42666447]I'm dubious about that claimed figure who are these people who have the ability to have that much money, and also spend it in such an uneducated manner? It doesn't follow. Seriously there must be some other reason rhino horn fetches such a high price beyond dumb beliefs.[/QUOTE] The end customers probably buy only a gram or so of rhino horn, for as much as they can afford. Chop a horn into little pieces, and that can probably get the figure that is listed for the poachers.

[QUOTE=SpartanXC9;42665008]Why don't we just hunt poachers to even it out?[/QUOTE] Because hunting them would be execution without trial. Putting them to death, even after having tried them, isn't something that we should be doing. Treat the source of poaching, because there'll always be someone else who's desperate enough to do it. Even if they know the punishment to be death.

I think that there is a connection between DNA and the bone "sample" (the rhino's horn) here. If we have the technology available in order to clone a animal with a DNA sample, we could clone as much animals as we want but this is just a guess. They are probably killing off the rhino just for money.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;42661099]Holy shit poachers have helicopters? I always had the mental image that they were basically land pirate riding around in old range rovers shooting at valuable animals with old Enfield rifles and AK-47's.[/QUOTE] With the cash they make on these animals, it's no surprise.

when are we going to just start mass-producing synthetic rhino horns and selling them on the black market as legitimate horns to crash the economy

[QUOTE=DiBBs27;42663993]I place african wildlife hunters near the top of my "scum of the earth" list.[/QUOTE] Because hunting some of the tens of thousands of Gazelle and/or Ibex is literally worse than Hitler, right?

[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;42667122]Because hunting them would be execution without trial. Putting them to death, even after having tried them, isn't something that we should be doing. Treat the source of poaching, because there'll always be someone else who's desperate enough to do it. Even if they know the punishment to be death.[/QUOTE] Funfact, many countries have a shoot on sight policy for poachers, so there's already a poacher hunting season in said countries, all year round but for law enforcement only.