14 DAY TRIAL // The Dallas Safari Club in the US has recently announced plans to auction off the chance to kill one of the endangered black rhinos presently living in Namibia's Mangetti National Park.
Interestingly enough, it appears that both high officials in Namibia and members of the US Fish and Wildlife Service not only know all about the Club's intention to auction off one such hunting permit, but have also given the green light to this project.
Thus, whoever gets the permit and kills the rhino will have no legal issues transporting their “trophy” back to the US, despite the fact that ongoing legislation should keep them from doing so.
According to Ecorazzi, the Dallas Safari Club explains that, contrary to expectations, this auction will actually benefit the world's remaining black rhino population.
Thus, the money raised in this manner is to be donated to Conservation Trust Fund for Namibia's Black Rhino, i.e. an organization whose working agenda revolves around keeping this species from going extinct as a result of poaching and habitat destruction.
Together with the conservationists working with the Trust Fund, the folks at the Dallas Safari Club maintain that auctioning off the chance to kill just one black rhino will not affect the species' long-term survival chances.
“Black rhinos tend to have a fairly high mortality rate. Generally speaking, out of a population of 2,000, harvesting three rhinos over a couple or three years has no impact on the health of the rhino herd at all,” Ben Carter with the Dallas Safari Club reportedly told the press.
“People are talking about ‘Why don’t you do a photo safari?’ or whatever. Well, that’s great, but people don’t pay for that,” he went on to say.
The auction is scheduled to take place during the Safari Club's upcoming annual convention in January 2014. Should things go as planned, the hunting permit will fetch at least $750,000 (€543,274).