Rhino Hunting

[Richprins]

Why can't you read, nana!

[nan]

read, I can... but need maybe all the night, till I understand all... and right, that is not won

but will read a paragraph after the other, day after day

[Dewi]

Parce qu'elle est langue française et tout ce que l'anglais est un peu trop pour elle.

(er, I think?)

[nan]

ya, it's a little long to read in one time

[Richprins]

Lots to read further!

Started more discussion here:

viewtopic.php?f=128&t=1411&start=50

[nan]

yes, I saw the picture... and not a very well one

[Sprocky]

2014-01-09

Dallas - The FBI is investigating death threats made against members of the Dallas hunting club that intends to auction off a rare permit to kill an endangered black rhino, an FBI spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Katherine Chaumont said the agency is reviewing multiple threats against the Dallas Safari Club. The club on Saturday plans to auction a permit the African country of Namibia granted for the hunt. The group has said all proceeds will go toward rhino conservation efforts.

"The FBI is aware of the threats," Chaumont said. "If a violation of federal law is determined, additional action or investigation as necessary will take place."

The club's executive director, Ben Carter, said the threatening messages - about a dozen sent by email and posted on the group's website - appear to be orchestrated by people who oppose hunting. Other messages have been left with club sponsors criticising support for the organisation.

"I've had death threats on my family," Carter said. "We've had a number of death threats to our members and [threats about] what would happen if we sell the permit.

"Some crazy stuff," he said.

The auction is being held amid tightened security as part of the club's three-day annual convention in Dallas, which is expected to draw about 45 000 people.

Could fetch $1m

The group announced in October that it would auction the permit, one of only five offered annually by Namibia. The permit is also the first to be made available for purchase outside of that country.

An estimated 4 000 black rhinos remain in the wild, down from 70 000 in the 1960s. Nearly 1 800 are in Namibia, according to the safari club.

Poachers long have targeted all species of rhino, primarily for its horn, which is valuable on the international black market. Made of the protein keratin, the chief component in fingernails and hooves, the horn has been used in carvings and for medicinal purposes, mostly in Asia. The near-extinction of the species also has been attributed to habitat loss.

Carter said the permit could fetch $1m. But organisers hope to at least break the previous high bid for one of the Namibia permits, which is $223 000.

Wildlife groups have criticised the promotion of a hunt targeting an endangered animal, but Carter said it's meant to cull aggressive rhinos in an effort to protect the larger herd. He said the Namibia hunt will focus on an older, nonbreeding male with a pattern of aggression toward other rhinos.

Carter said that wildlife experts say culling a herd is an acceptable habitat management practice.

"When you have the science and facts behind it, and people don't want to listen and just become emotional, you just wonder how people's brains work sometimes."

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said culling a herd is acceptable for a population that's abundant, but not for a species on the federal endangered species list.

"We've had a standard for more than 40 years that you don't shoot an animal that's endangered," he said on Wednesday.

Jeffrey Flocken, North American regional director of the Massachusetts-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, also said on Wednesday that culling the herd is the wrong approach, given the limited number of black rhinos in existence. The better approach is to protect the rhino by establishing a secure habitat that welcomes the paying public to view the animal, he said.

"This auction is telling the world that an American will pay anything to kill their species," Flocken said. "This is, in fact, making a spectacle of killing an endangered species."


- AP

[Lisbeth]

What did they expect? This story is all

[Sprocky]

2014-01-10

Windhoek - Namibia wildlife authorities on Friday defended the auction of permits to hunt black rhino, saying the kill was aimed at conserving the endangered species.

The auction conducted in the US by The Dallas Safari Club is part of a government approved annual quota, in place since 2012. It gives permission for the killing of five black rhino per year.

"We have been confronted by individuals and organisations who express their dissatisfaction about the programme...they sometimes think that we do things randomly," said the Deputy Minister of Environment Pohamba Shifeta.

"People should not be worried, we have a programme and policies that we are following."

Shifeta said the auction which ends on Saturday will be followed by a hunt at a national park in the semi-desert southern African country that has a black rhino population of nearly 1 800.

Media reported that The Dallas Safari Club expected the auction to generate $250 000-$1 million.

Namibia says proceeds from that the hunt which has drawn widespread criticism from wildlife groups go to a conservation fund.

"We have never experienced a reduction of rhinos, in fact, the number has increased," Shifeta said.

Namibia is less hit by rhino poaching compared to South Africa, with only 10 killed since 2006, according to the international wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic.

Across the border, rhino poaching has reached crisis levels, with nearly a thousand killed in 2012.

Black rhinoceros are internationally considered an endangered species and the World Wildlife Fund says there are less than 5 000 rhino remaining in Africa.

The Namibian government also grants licences for the hunting of big game like elephant and lion.

- AFP

[Sprocky]

2014-01-12

Dallas - A permit to hunt an endangered African black rhino sold on Saturday night for $350 000 (R3.7m) at a Dallas auction held to raise money for conservation efforts, but criticised by wildlife advocates.

Steve Wagner, a spokesperson for the Dallas Safari Club, which sponsored the closed-door event, confirmed the sale of the permit for a hunt in Namibia. He declined to name the buyer.

Ben Carter, executive director of the Safari Club, has defended the auction. He said all money raised will go toward protecting the species. He also said the rhino that the winner will be allowed to hunt is old, male and non-breeding - and that the animal was likely to be targeted for removal anyway because it was becoming aggressive and threatening other wildlife.

But the auction drew howls from critics, including wildlife and animal rights groups, and the FBI last week said it was investigating death threats against members of the club.

Officials from the Humane Society and the International Fund for Animal Welfare have said that while culling can be appropriate in abundant animal populations, all black rhinos should be protected, given their endangered status.

An estimated 4 000 black rhinos remain in the wild, down from 70 000 in the 1960s. Nearly 1 800 are in Namibia, according to the safari club.

Bad message

Critics have also said any hunting of a rhino sends a bad message to the public.

"This auction is telling the world that an American will pay anything to kill their species," Jeffrey Flocken, North American regional director of the Massachusetts-based IFAW, said earlier this week. "This is, in fact, making a spectacle of killing an endangered species."

The auction took place on Saturday night in downtown Dallas under tight security and behind closed doors. Organisers hoped to at least break the previous high bid for one of the permits in Namibia, which is $223 000, and had said the amount could be as high as $1m. The nation offers five permits each year, and the one auctioned on Saturday was the first to be made available for purchase outside of Namibia.

The winning bidder could have come from anywhere in the world, and at least some bidders were expected to enter by phone.

About 40 protesters gathered early on Saturday evening outside the convention centre where the auction and a pre-auction dinner were to take place. They held signs and chanted.

Jim and Lauren Ries travelled with their children from Atlanta to protest the auction. Jim Ries said it was his son Carter, 12, and daughter Olivia, 11, who pushed for them to go and participate.

"We heard what the Dallas Safari Club was doing and we thought it was just wrong that they were auctioning off to kill a black rhino and we really got upset that they were thinking this," Carter Ries said.

Jim Ries said his children are passionate about animal conservation and were working to help adopt cheetahs in Africa. The family started a non-profit called One More Generation, dedicated to saving endangered species.

"There's less than 5 000 black rhinos left on the planet," the father said, "and if our kids ever want to see a rhino left in the wild, we can't be pulling the trigger on every one we say is too old to breed".

Poachers long have targeted all species of rhino, primarily for its horn, which is valuable on the international black market.

Made of the protein keratin, the chief component in fingernails and hooves, the horn has been used in carvings and for medicinal purposes, mostly in Asia.

The near-extinction of the species also has been attributed to habitat loss.


- AP