Controversial Texas hunter kills endangered black rhino after bidding $350,000

More than 150,000 people have signed petitions to stop Texas hunter Corey Knowlton from killing and importing an endangered black rhinoceros. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have received 15,000 comments against importing the rhinoceros and 135,000 signatures on a petition requesting the same, the Associated Press reported. less More than 150,000 people have signed petitions to stop Texas hunter Corey Knowlton from killing and importing an endangered black rhinoceros. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have received 15,000 ... more Photo: Fechter, Joshua I, Corey Knowlton/Facebook Photo: Fechter, Joshua I, Corey Knowlton/Facebook Image 1 of / 98 Caption Close Controversial Texas hunter kills endangered black rhino after bidding $350,000 1 / 98 Back to Gallery

Texas hunter Corey Knowlton, who faced online backlash for paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill an endangered black rhino, shot and killed the rhino after a three-day hunt in Namibia on Monday.

Footage shot exclusively by CNN shows Knowlton firing his rifle and downing the animal, which was hit at least three times. Knowlton said he believed the killing would benefit the species' future.

"I felt like from day one it was something benefiting the black rhino," Knowlton told CNN moments after killing the rhino. "Being on this hunt, with the amount of criticism it brought and the amount of praise it brought from both sides, I don't think it could have brought more awareness to the black rhino."

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There are about 4,800 black rhinos remaining in the world, according to World Wildlife Fund, Roughly 1,800 of those live in Namibia, where the hunt for the one rhino requested by Knowlton would take place.

More than 150,000 people signed petitions and left comments with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December asking them to bar Knowlton from being able to import the dead animal, thus preventing him from killing it.

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The agency later granted the Dallas Safari Club, with whom Knowlton bid $350,000 for the permit to kill the animal, a permit to import the dead rhino, according to NPR.

"I am deeply saddened, disappointed and incredulous that he sees this mission as contributing to the survival of endangered black rhinos," Jeff Flocken of the International Fund for Animal Welfare told NPR. "If you pay to take a human life and give to humanitarian causes, it does not make you a humanitarian. And paying money to kill one of the last iconic animals on earth does not make you a conservationist."

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports