Paying 350k to kill a black rhino.....

Winner of rhino hunting auction: My $350,000 will help save species - CNN.com

On the face, it seems like a bad idea, but there are compelling arguments that removing some of the old, dangerous rhinos to protect the younger ones has merit.
From what I've read, the IUCN (who has sanctioned this approach) is a longstanding and responsible organization that is fully committed to protecting species. I would want to see a more detailed description of what is wrong with their methodology in this case, before I condemn it.
Of course, the precedent is a little concerning... Paying enormous amounts of money to hunt endangered species...
This certainly cannot be allowed to become the new standard.

The guy who won the auction seems like a fairly reasonable guy.
Either he is actually a decent and concerned hunter/conservationist... or he really knows how to spin...

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I'm betting on spin. He will undoubtably show it on his TV show. If he is that concerned for the species, why not GIVE the 350K to the foundation to help preserve the species? This is all about killing something endangered...

A guy on the radio said that an old bull can damage the herd because he no longer breeds but is still capable of keeping young bulls away from "his" females. If so, then it is probably ethical to have this old bull put down. That someone would bid so much money for the opportunity seems sick to me, but if the money goes to a good cause, then they should go ahead and exploit the man's sick fantasies.

I am against it, simply for that reason. Let him give the money to the foundation and let them kill it, off camera and unpublicized.

Good, trophy hunter and hunters in general do more for animal conservation than the hippies.

$350k is a lot of money in that African country.

If an animal needs to be disposed off they can either have a ranger off it, and get nothing, or have some rich guy pay a fortune for the right, and probably spend a ton more money with the locals while he is doing it.

Its a win, win.

You guys have to remember that in these poor countries a lot of these animals are considered pests, and worth more to the locals dead. Trophy hunting provides incentives to keep them around and keep the poachers away. Several guys at my Rod & Gun club have gone on Safari and killed just about anything you can name in Africa. Its highly regulated and very successful at improving populations of animals. Typically the animals hunted are older, sickly, etc. It also provides funds to these countries that otherwise wouldn't exist to hire rangers and manage their parks and animal populations, which offshoots into tourism.

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Expensive hunting trips have been around forever as the thing to do when you have lots of time and extra money on hand.

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Unfortunately true. Trophy hunting sickens me, but nowhere near as much as the wholesale slaughter poaching creates thruout Africa. Folks in the west don't have a clue what goes on there.

- Peter.

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The old bulls, like the one to be put down, not only run off the younger males but actually kill a few in the process. This restricts the amount of stock that is available to reproduce and the number of these animals continues to dwindle.

So if the old bull has to be culled the country might as well make a few shekels off him. These animals are a natural resource just like minerals, and it is not like you pay your money and then get to shoot at anything that moves.

This is just a case of game management and these smaller countries in Africa are getting better at it all the time.

Were spoiled in this country because we are so wealthy we can afford to care about our national parks and animal population. We have a large tax base that can support the park rangers to manage it, and a large hunting industry that supports it threw licensing fees.

Its pretty hard to tell an African substance farmer he has to care about an animal when his children are starving.

But he will care about that animal if the rich guys that come to shoot it, stop by his roadside stand and pay him $20+ in US currency for some vegetables. That money goes a long way.

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Not far removed from the concept . . . "Oh, let me rape one of your daughters and I'll donate money to the rape crisis hotline." Win-win!

Bad analogy. Raping the daughter would not serve a greater good. This bull, apparently, needs to be put down for the good of the herd.

Oh, I see.

I detest trophy hunters and trappers, but this looks like a win for both sides. To paraphrase my old pal Ed Abbey, when I look at a picture of some doofus grinning over the dead elk he shot, I am most impressed by the nobility of the animal; the dead one that is. Never the less, species preservation is rarely if ever best served by emotional reaction.

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It's not just that money, it's about the raising of all the monies that went into it, and I suspect raising the visibility of the cause.

It is true that the elderly bulls are less than ideal candidates for breeding in some animals. Especially not good to have them around if they're only there because of the nurturing of man, and not in the natural circumstances of in-the-wild, 100%.

We're not talking about wholesale slaughter for the sake of slaughtering as a sport here - as some are trying to suggest with no info on the matter at hand.