Price of inhumane behaviour

Black rhino hunt permit brings $350,000 at controversial auction | Environment | theguardian.com: "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.

Critics have 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. "This is, in fact, making a spectacle of killing an endangered species."

The auction took place in downtown Dallas under tight security. Organisers hoped to at least break the previous high bid for one of the permits in Namibia, which was $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 Namibia."

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