What Would Jesus Stalk, Kill, Stuff & Mount?
MayorBob.
Posted to Etcetera on Fri Nov 23, 2007 at 07:59:14 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
When you think Brigham Young University (BYU) you think Mormons or maybe football quarterbacks. You don't think commissioning the slaughter of rare animals. But this is exactly what BYU did. A rare white rhino skin is destined to be mounted in the school's natural history museum. While this seems just peachy to the benefactor who killed the animal and BYU officials, it's gotten under the skin of animal welfare activists.
Almost as soon as the Salt Lake Tribune reported on BYU benefactor Fred Morris' mission to South Africa, you just knew it wasn't going to end there. Morris had been recruited to go to South Africa's Mkuze National Park. Once there, Morris got a license from park authorities allowing him to hunt and kill one white rhinoceros for purposes of display back at BYU. With this task complete, Morris intends to return to Africa to bag a black rhino, a hippopotamus, and a giraffe for other exhibits. According to Morris it's his way of not only giving to BYU but giving back to rhinos everywhere:"It was a privilege, but it is expensive. It's a way to put money into wildlife and know that it really does something."
The reason he says this is that part of the (US)$30,000 Morris paid Mkuze goes to fund populating areas outside the park with excess rhinos. One group not convinced this was a good move is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). HSUS President Wayne Pacelle wrote a letter to BYU expressing his disapproval, "killing animals for museum exhibition is not acceptable in our day, especially when the target is one of the rarest large mammals in the world." Pacelle noted "this practice was common a century ago" but that "most reputable museums pursue other strategies for obtaining specimens." It should be noted that the white rhinoceros, as a species, is listed as "near threatened." However, the southern variety (hunted by Morris) is more numerous than the northern variety. Museum vertebrates collection manager Wesley Skidmore said that commissioning Morris to hunt the rhino was more economical because "we don't have the money to buy one."
You might wonder just what sort of sporting endeavor this hunt for a white rhino might be - this video (not of Morris' hunt) will give you an idea. Not that these hunts are risk-free for the hunter. Two other hunts last year resulted in the death of one hunter and a goring for a second. The Tribune weighed in with an editorial, denouncing BYU for conducting a "thrill kill." The editorial took the school to task for putting itself in a bit of an "ethical bind" as the collections are used to "celebrate the role of Jesus Christ as Creator."
< Wal-Mart: Always Keeping Prices Low by Garnishing Your Disability Judgment. Always.
Alchemists of Molecular Biology Turn Skin Cells into Stem Cells >
