If you had a spare $350,000 lying around, what would you do with it? Buy a couple Birkin bags, make a donation to your favorite charity? For one Texas hunter, the answer to that question is "kill an endangered rhinoceros."
Corey Knowlton won an auction last January that gave him a hunting permit to kill an endangered black rhino, which weighed about 3,000 pounds. Knowlton quickly gained criticism from animal-rights activists, since there are only about 4,500 black rhinos left on Earth. But Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism gave Knowlton the permit, and he obtained another permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so he could bring the dead animal back to America.
For its part, the ministry maintains that the contest and permit are actually helping save the animals — the group allows five killings a year of rhinos who aren't able to breed and could be a threat to younger males. The money from the contest is given to anti-poaching and conservation projects, NPR reports.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Knowlton made good on his winnings and killed the rhino on Monday. "Any time you take an animal's life, it's an emotional thing," Knowlton told CNN.
-
Trump’s visit: the mouse and the walrusBritain is keen to point to its own ‘tangible results’, but the US administration has made their demands clear
-
Marie Antoinette Style at the V&A: a ‘magnificent’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends The UK’s first show dedicated solely to the French queen explores the complex woman behind the ‘bling’
-
8 riveting museum exhibitions on view in the fallThe Week Recommends See Winslow Homer rarities and Black art reimagined
-
Nobody seems surprised Wagner's Prigozhin died under suspicious circumstancesSpeed Read
-
Western mountain climbers allegedly left Pakistani porter to die on K2Speed Read
-
'Circular saw blades' divide controversial Rio Grande buoys installed by Texas governorSpeed Read
-
Los Angeles city workers stage 1-day walkout over labor conditionsSpeed Read
-
Mega Millions jackpot climbs to an estimated $1.55 billionSpeed Read
-
Bangladesh dealing with worst dengue fever outbreak on recordSpeed Read
-
Glacial outburst flooding in Juneau destroys homesSpeed Read
-
Scotland seeking 'monster hunters' to search for fabled Loch Ness creatureSpeed Read
