Wanted: Animal Godparents for Chilean Zoo in 'Bleak' Year

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Oliver the rhinoceros, King Julien the lemur, Chilly Willy the penguin and their friends are urgently seeking sponsors for their bed and board in a Chilean zoo as visitors have dwindled to zero with the arrival of coronavirus.

Buin Zoo, on the outskirts of the capital Santiago, is ordinarily one of the city's top attractions but it is struggling to stay afloat in an extraordinary year.

Visitor numbers dropped off during widespread social protests over inequality that started in October with looting and arson attacks at their fringes. The coronavirus outbreak in March shut down the zoo, capping a "bleak" year, Ignacio Idalsoaga, the zoo's director, said in an interview.

To read more on this story, click here: Wanted: Animal Godparents for Chilean Zoo in 'Bleak' Year

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Billionaire Trophy Hunter Kills Endangered Black Rhino With No Regrets, And U.S. Allows Him To Import Body Parts

Black rhinos are listed as critically endangered with less than 5,500 remaining in the world. The African rhino is poached for its horns. Aside from being poached, rhinos are targeted by trophy hunters as a rare hunt.

One American trophy hunter, Lacy Harber, headed to Namibia to hunt and kill a black rhino. According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), “Two trophy hunting organizations, the Dallas Safari Club Foundation and Conservation Force, auctioned off the rhino hunt in December 2016 for $275,000. The auction was won by a Texas billionaire who hunted the animal on February 26, 2017, at the Veronica Game Lodge in Namibia. Conservation Force then filed the import permit application on April 12, 2017.”

Harber tells Herold Democrat, “He had turned into a rogue rhino and the Namibian game department had documented that he had killed two females and three babies,” Harber said. “If you don’t have a use for an animal, if it has no value, it’ll just disappear.”

To read more on this story, click here: Billionaire Trophy Hunter Kills Endangered Black Rhino With No Regrets, And U.S. Allows Him To Import Body Parts


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