I'm pretty sure that I don't have the pocket change that it will take to buy that hunt. And from the sounds of it, death threats and all, don't believe that I would want my name published publicly if I did buy it.

quote:

Originally posted by pagosawingnut:
....And from the sounds of it, death threats and all, don't believe that I would want my name published publicly if I did buy it.

Don't let that stop you. This is from the auction site: • REGISTERED BIDDER NAMES/WINNING BIDDER NAME WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED. ONLY BIDDER NUMBERS WILL BE DISPLAYED DURING ONLINE BIDDING.

The thing that's keeping me from bidding is that I believe this will end up selling for close to the cost of my house, and I don't think the bank would look favorably at a second mortgage to pay for a rhino hunt.

Lhook7
I'm in the same boat as you. Have to sell most all I own to be able to afford it.

quote:

Originally posted by Lhook7:

The thing that's keeping me from bidding is that I believe this will end up selling for close to the cost of my house, and I don't think the bank would look favorably at a second mortgage to pay for a rhino hunt.

But just think, you could be the coolest homeless guy around with a Black Rhino shoulder mount in his shopping cart!

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:

quote:

Originally posted by Lhook7:

The thing that's keeping me from bidding is that I believe this will end up selling for close to the cost of my house, and I don't think the bank would look favorably at a second mortgage to pay for a rhino hunt.

But just think, you could be the coolest homeless guy around with a Black Rhino shoulder mount in his shopping cart!

It wouldn't last long, my wife would get the cart and 50% custody of the rhino in the divorce proceedings.

quote:

Originally posted by Lhook7:

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:

quote:

Originally posted by Lhook7:

The thing that's keeping me from bidding is that I believe this will end up selling for close to the cost of my house, and I don't think the bank would look favorably at a second mortgage to pay for a rhino hunt.

But just think, you could be the coolest homeless guy around with a Black Rhino shoulder mount in his shopping cart!

It wouldn't last long, my wife would get the cart and 50% custody of the rhino in the divorce proceedings.

Now that's one of the funniest post I've read in a while.

All yall could pitch it a few thousand and send me to do the hunt. I'll take plenty of pix and do a full report after the fact.

That way we 'all' get to go.

quote:

Originally posted by Duckear:
All yall could pitch it a few thousand and send me to do the hunt. I'll take plenty of pix and do a full report after the fact.

That way we 'all' get to go.

You are a true humanitarian ! Lol

I wonder if the rhino has any idea of all the fuss he is causing?

Awwww, hell, I could get my banker to finance it but I don't think it would look good in my double wide.

quote:

Awwww, hell, I could get my banker to finance it but I don't think it would look good in my double wide.

YOU GOTTA DOUBLEWIDE?
Man, I been wantin one of them!
Ya got skertin too?

Rhino would have been interesting a century ago, or maybe even half a century ago -- before they had names. Reading about the pseudo-terrorist groups hunting Mau Mau in the Aberdares and their encounters with rhino in the forest were interesting to say the least, as were Hunter's. But "hunting" a particular animal in a defined space -- probably a lot more open than the Aberdare forest -- that's not so interesting.

I wish I could afford it so I could publically announce my name and see if those eco-terrorists are really serious. Now that might be interesting.

Where do you have all those buff heads hangin then?
G

Pretty sure the buyer will be some horrible SCI member.

most likely an inner circle(jerk) member trying to close out his planet earth 5000 species of mammals award….

I am actually doubting that the winner will be someone (even if it were leaked) who's name we would recognize. There are a LOT of big money hunters out there who (quite wisely) publicize none of their activities. That this hunt has been so controversial and publicized means that there is not a hunter in America (no matter how "out of the loop") who doesn't know about it. I can just imagine some old guy sitting in his Oak paneled and smoke filled Manhattan trophy room thinking right now about finishing the "real" big five that he started 30 years ago. He is likely not computer savvy and will probably have to call in a member of his staff to bid online... but I hope he wins and contributes seven figures to Rhino conservation.

Concealing the winning bidder's name is of little use. The winner's name would no doubt be revealed when he/she applied for the import permit from the USFWS. However, anyone able to buy the tag no doubt already has state of the art security.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
most likely an inner circle(jerk) member trying to close out his planet earth 5000 species of mammals award….

What year did you graduate from clown college?

Actually, this is as legitimate as one can get to getting a legal "canned" trophy hunt.

And it is good for the rhinos too.

Unlike all the silly things those "inner circle" nitwits get up to, to get into those "circles"

quote:

Originally posted by bwana cecil:

quote:

Awwww, hell, I could get my banker to finance it but I don't think it would look good in my double wide.

YOU GOTTA DOUBLEWIDE?
Man, I been wantin one of them!
Ya got skertin too?

Yep, got skertin as well.
You think I'm joking!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

Unlike all the silly things those "inner circle" nitwits get up to, to get into those "circles"

Especially in this case, I could care less about what the motivations of bidders might be. If the above is true, I suspect that like you I wish we had more rich nitwits to push the bidding up! On a separate note, not that a "canned" hunt necessarily means it's "fenced" (or vice-versa), but does anyone know if Mangetti Park (420km2) is 100% fenced or not? I see it often referred to as part of a "transfrontier park" so that would imply it is not fenced, but I am not so sure.

quote:

Originally posted by pagosawingnut:
Awwww, hell, I could get my banker to finance it but I don't think it would look good in my double wide.

You could hang a swivel beer holder off it's snoot!


.

quote:

Originally posted by pagosawingnut:

quote:

Originally posted by bwana cecil:

quote:

Awwww, hell, I could get my banker to finance it but I don't think it would look good in my double wide.

YOU GOTTA DOUBLEWIDE?
Man, I been wantin one of them!
Ya got skertin too?

Yep, got skertin as well.
You think I'm joking!

Wheels on or wheels off?

'Course the wheels are off. Couldn't put skertin on it with em on!

quote:

It wouldn't last long, my wife would get the cart and 50% custody of the rhino in the divorce proceedings.

Don't laugh. There was a South African P.H. who took a client to hunt a white rhino but conveniently forgot that the ex-wife had won a 1/2 interest in the divorce. She wouldn't sign the CITES stuff, the hunter got nothing for his $50K and the P.H. got convicted of some crime and his licenses were suspended for a few years. Probably didn't help that the landowner where the rhino was located was, by then, zooming the ex.

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Graham:

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
most likely an inner circle(jerk) member trying to close out his planet earth 5000 species of mammals award….

What year did you graduate from clown college?

1970. and you??

The strong rumor that rhino horn trade will become legal in 2016 flies around in South Africa.Already the farmers are asking ridiculous prices for cows.
Anyway we have a tag for a black rhino bull 23".You don't have to bid the price is fixed at $170 000.Contact your banker urgently and offer him your 3 houses.
Theo

quote:

Originally posted by SkinAfrika Consulting:
The strong rumor that rhino horn trade will become legal in 2016 flies around in South Africa.Already the farmers are asking ridiculous prices for cows. Anyway we have a tag for a black rhino bull 23".You don't have to bid the price is fixed at $170 000.Contact your banker urgently and offer him your 3 houses.
Theo

The problem is that even if CITES allowed legal trade, the USFWS would still not allow import to the US. This auctioned bull has guaranteed importability from the USFWS going in. CORRECTION: No Guarantee is explicitly given (see below) but at least they have a recent import as precedent. One would hope then that this rhino would generate more than the one without precedent for import. I think the last one sold for around $230K.

NEWS - NAMIBIA | 2013-12-12

Cabinet approves rhino auction

CABINET has confirmed that yet another black rhinoceros will be killed for an auction in the United States of America.

The black rhino will be auctioned during the Dallas Safari Club Annual Convention, which will take place between 9 and 12 January next year.

According to the release, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism obtained a five-year approval from Cabinet to sell five black rhinoceros yearly for trophy hunting.

The hunting will be conducted through tender. “The purpose of these sales is to generate money for rhino conservation.”

The rhinoceros’ hunts, it further stated, are normally sold to Namibian registered trophy hunting operators, who in turn sell them to foreign hunters.

During 2013, two black rhinoceros were sold through the tender process to Namibian companies for N$1,85 million and N$2,1 million, respectively.

All were hunted during the past hunting season, which ended last month.

The Dallas auction is said to not only generate money for conservation “but will also promote Namibia as a tourism destination”.

The reserve price for the rhinoceros, estimated to be almost twice the price of this year’s highest bid of N$2,1 million, the release indicated, will be set closer to the auction. During late October, it was reported that a Texan hunting club sought to raise up to US$1 million for endangered black rhinoceros by auctioning off a permit to kill one in Namibia.

“First and foremost, this is about saving the black rhino,” said Ben Carter, executive director of the Dallas Safari Club.

Black rhinocerous are internationally considered an endangered species and the World Wildlife Fund says about 4 800 are alive in the wild in Africa.

Carter, at the time, said in a statement sent to AFP, the Namibian government “selected” his hunting club to auction a black rhinocerous hunting permit for one of its national parks.

Namibia has an annual quota to kill up to five black rhinocerous out of 1 795 animals.

A single permit issued to a US hunter in 2009 to kill a black rhinocerous fetched US$175 000 (about N$1,7 million) for the Namibian Game Products Trust Fund.

Tim van Norman, chief of the branch of permits at the FWS said the US government has not yet issued any permit to the Dallas Safari Club to bring a rhinocerous carcass into the country.

“The individual hunter, who is identified as the winner of the auction, would first have to pass certain background checks and the animal chosen for the hunt would have to be approved as being beneficial to the conservation of the species for the US government to allow the trophy inside its borders,” he said.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) described the news of the auction as “disturbing” and vowed to campaign against the issuance of a US permit to return the trophy.

“The world is seeing a concerted effort to preserve the very few black rhinos and other rhinos who are dodging poachers’ bullets and habitat destruction,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the HSUS.

“The last thing they need are wealthy elites from foreign lands coming in to kill them for their heads.” He also questioned the ethics of wealthy, competitive trophy hunters who say they want to kill an animal in the name of conservation.

“Shooting a black rhino in the wild is about as difficult as shooting a parked car,” he said.
- See more at: http://www.namibian.com.na/ind...sthash.YtMqL7GF.dpuf

http://www.fws.gov/internation...o-import-permit.html



USFWS Statement on Dallas Safari Club’s Auction of a Black Rhino Hunting Permit
October 29, 2013

USFWS Statement

The Dallas Safari Club plans to auction a special hunting permit to take a black rhino. The hunting permit will be issued by the Government of the Republic of Namibia with all proceeds earmarked for rhino conservation in that country.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has not received an application to allow for the importation of a black rhino trophy associated with the Dallas Safari Club auction. Under Service regulations, the required import permit must be issued to a specific individual or company. As such, the winning bidder of the Dallas Safari Club auction must apply for and obtain the required import permit once the auction has ended.

We have provided guidance to the Dallas Safari Club and Dallas Ecological Foundation on specific criteria that must be met for the Service to consider issuing a permit for the importation of a sport-hunted black rhino trophy. For species protected under the Endangered Species Act, an import permit will be issued if, and only if, we determine that the sport-hunted trophy is taken as part of a well-managed conservation program that enhances the long-term survival of the species.

The Government of the Republic of Namibia authorizes an annual harvest of five post- reproductive male black rhinos. The Namibian government has stated that it will issue the black rhino hunting permit that will be auctioned by the Dallas Safari Club in accordance with provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

On March 28, 2013, the Service issued an import permit for a sport- hunted black rhino trophy taken in Namibia in 2009. However, the issuance of that permit does not guarantee the issuance of future permits for the import of black rhino sport-hunted trophies from Namibia or elsewhere. The review of any future applications will be based on the eligibility of the applicant, biological data of the specific black rhino being hunted, as well as any new information available at the time the application is received.

how does an applicant show he is "eligible" for an import permit???? and what kind of background checks are necessary??? i hope these folks are right and they do get $1 million US for the permit but i will be really surprised.

all of this sounds so complicated...i think i will stick with squirrls in the back yard

Not my cup of meat.

The ONLY challenge in this hunt would be coming up with the scratch to pay for it!

Kathi,

Interesting! I was under the impression from previous articles that the USFWS had more explicitly signed off! That they are now saying that "a past permit will not guarantee a forthcoming one" might hurt auction results I am afraid. If anything, this seems like a perfect chance to GUARANTEE importability for USFWS and probably up the auction returns by 30-40%.

To be preapproved to bid you have to provide a "financial letter of credit with an amount of at least $250K from a legitimate banking institution".