This guy seems to be a huge douche. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33695872 He kills what amounts to a pet lion, then says he's sorry and relied on his guide. No one spends $50,000 to hunt and not check the credentials of the guide service. His "guide service" wasn't licensed in Zimbabwe. He poached a black bear in 2008 too.
If they were killed legally, even if they're endangered, so be it. I know the big horn is an expensive ass hunt with a like 8% success rate. I see no reason why you would want to kill a rhino. I can't stand guys like this because everyone starts talking about how horrible it is to hunt.
He used the word "legally" in his statement. It does not appear to be legal and "ignorance of the law" is never a good defense. The guy is getting slammed on Yelp, Facebook (before it was taken down, at his business), twitter, TV, etc...
I'm all for hunting even though I don't enjoy it enough to do it, but this guy just comes across as a pretentious d'bag. As I explained to a friend, what if someone ran over Smokey for the heck of it? Wouldn't you be pissed?
.. or shoot Smokey with an arrow in the middle of the night, watched him suffer for 40 hours, shoot him dead, skin him, and chop off his head.
I don't think what this guy has been doing qualifies as hunting. Having a team of guys bait and lure an animal off of protected land and then hold your hand and lead you to it isn't hunting to me.
I don't get trophy hunting in general, it just rubs me the wrong way. That said, if it's legal so be it. If youre poaching vulnerable species I wouldn't shed a tear if you're put to the sword.
But I gave 350lbs of lion meat to a local village so I'm actually a perfectly good and reasonable human!! Not certain it applies to this case, but it's the go to defense when people kill exotic things for fun.