ZIMBABWE/USA/FILE: GoDaddy CEO Bob Parson defends elephant hunt

Record ID: 185208

  • Title: ZIMBABWE/USA/FILE: GoDaddy CEO Bob Parson defends elephant hunt
  • Date: 2nd April 2011
  • Summary: (MUTE) WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES (APRIL 1, 2011) (REUTERS) GENERAL COUNSEL FOR PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS (PETA) JEFFREY KERR WALKING TOWARDS OFFICE BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEFFREY KERR, PETA GENERAL COUNSEL, SAYING: "There's no excuse for it and any purported rationalization of it is just that, it's an excuse and it needs to stop. If he really cares about feeding people, he should feed the people by food drops, but this was a premeditated execution for his own amusement."
  • Embargoed: 17th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Zimbabwe, Usa
  • City:
  • Country: Usa Zimbabwe
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World
  • Reuters ID: LVA1MO7R5WGTMFWR8F13OQ3VNQFV
  • Story Text: Animals rights activists slammed CEO Bob Parsons of web domain hosting company GoDaddy Friday (April 1) after he posted a graphic video on the Internet showing an elephant hunt in an African village.
    The video, that went viral this week, shows Parsons standing, rifle in hand, over a slain elephant in Labola, Zimbabwe.
    The video shows the dead elephant surrounded by swarms of villagers carving the meat of the elephant. Many of them are wearing bright orange GoDaddy caps handed out by Parsons.
    Loud rock music plays in the background as villagers butcher the pachyderm.
    Outraged activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent Parsons a letter on Thursday (March 31) calling him "America's scummiest C.E.O. of the year."
    PETA later closed its account with GoDaddy and urged others to do the same.
    In Washington D.C., PETA's General Counsel Jeffery said Parsons' claims of helping villagers and said the elephant hunt was a "premeditated execution."
    "There's no excuse for it and any purported rationalization of it is just that, it's an excuse and it needs to stop," Kerr said. "This was a premeditated execution for his own amusement."
    Parsons, an avid hunter, mounted a media blitz on Friday (April 1) to defend his hunt, saying he was protecting villagers from rogue elephants that trampled on crops and ruined the livelihoods of farmers.
    In a phone interview with Reuters from Hawaii, Parsons said he was invited by tribal hunters to help out farmers who did not have the means to drive the elephants away.
    He added that building electric fences was impractical in an area, he claimed, had no electricity.
    Calling PETA a "publicity machine" that was "no white knight," Parsons said hunters did a lot of good and his hunt was an example of just that.
    He hit back at his critics, calling them "fringe elements" whose "hearts are in the right place, but they don't understand the situation."
    Parsons said he killed one bull elephant and that kept the rest of the herd away from the fields.
    When asked if he would return to Zimbabwe next year, Parsons said he would go, but stressed that he would not kill elephants for sport, but to help villagers protect their crops.
    GoDaddy is no stranger to controversy. Some of the company's commercials have been banned for being too racy for television.
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