It's been almost a year since Texas hunter Corey Knowlton won an auction to kill an endangered black rhinoceros in southern Africa and the backlash against the hunt is still just as strong.
Knowlton, of Royse City, was bombarded with criticism and death threats in January after he paid $350,000 to the Dallas Safari Club in a bid to win a trip to shoot and kill a black rhino in Namibia, The Independent reported.
The safari club postponed Knowlton's trip, but not because of the threats- it was put on hold until the hunter could secure a permit to import the rhino carcass unto the U.S., the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is in charge of approving the permit, say they are now being bombarded with petitions signed by thousands who are demanding Knowlton's request be rejected.
Another 15,000 have sent in comments denouncing the hunter's application since the agency published it in November.
"I'm not sure we've ever received a petition quite like this one before," USFWS spokesman Gavin Shire told the AP.
There are 4,800 black rhinoceroses in the world, with 1,800 of them in Namibia. The Dallas Safari club previously said the male rhino in question, one of five Namibia approved for culling, is old, non-breeding, aggressive and is turning into a threat to surrounding wildlife, The Independent reported.
"I deeply care about all of the inhabitants of this planet and I am looking forward to more educated discussion regarding the ongoing conservation effort for the Black Rhino," Knowlton previously wrote according to the newspaper.
Animal rights activists, however, say there is a backwards mentality to hunting an animal down to save the endangered species.
"Kill it to save it is counterintuitive and flawed logic," Jeff Flocken, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's regional director for North America, told the AP. "The fact that some Americans are showing they will pay any price to kill one of the last black rhinos is not going to help the species in the long run but only continue to put a price on its head."
The USFWS said it will review the comments "for substantive information" as it decides if the rhino hunt serves as conservation.
