Texas man pays $350,000 to kill endangered rhino

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.

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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.