There is a brouhaha in the news this week, and I’m not talking about the Comodo breach. I’m talking about the reaction to Bob Parson’s elephant snuff video.
Parson’s defends his decision to go elephant hunting in Zimbabwe for the second year in a row by claiming that he is doing it to help the locals protect their crops.
Regardless of how one feels about hunting, it is difficult to digest the idea that killing a member of an endangered species is a good thing. Zimbabwe is suffering from dramatic declines in animal populations due to indiscriminate hunting, according to a March 18th article in eTurboNews. In 2009, Scientific American reported a dramatic decline in African elephant populations – down from millions in 1930 to only about 500,000 today. As an article in change.org spelled out, there are a number of methods that can be used to keep elephants out of crops. Reducing the already dangerously low elephant population by shooting these animals seem to be (pardon my pun) overkill.
PETA agrees and has been quick to publicly denounce Parsons for his actions and to award Parsons a new PETA award as the “scummiest CEO of the year”. Unfortunately, PETA is also a Go Daddy customer. A situation that PETA claims it will be changing. Parson’s has replied by accusing PETA of an “extortion-style” practice.
Hey PETA, you can swap out your Go Daddy SSL certificate for a GeoTrust SSL certificate for free. Our executives don’t kill elephants while on vacation.
By the way: that free switch offer is open to everyone. www.geotrust.com/switchdaddy
Thanks go to Printcentr.com for the elephant image.
Whose the real Dumbo then? The elephant or Parsons?
I’ve been going to his blog and more than 95% of the people who are supporting him are:
A) Own a wildlife import business
B) Are active hunters for Trophies
C) Are poachers.
Another issue is that in his blog it seems all he talks about is his weapon and the ultimate achievement of killing a huge beast like an Elephant, but when defending his actions to CNN and other news places he says he did it for the people.
It doesn’t really line up with him.
Thank you for making us aware of SSL companies news and their ethical issues. This article is well written and shows the real face of GoDaddy CEO.
This is disgusting. I actually just found out about a company called HostPapa where using the coupon code “elephant” they’ll donate $5 dollars to http://www.savetheelephants.org/ . They’ll also give you 3 months free! So I’m switching over all my sites hosted through GoDaddy to them immediately.
Cool post, animals are the best.
Cool post, I love animals myself, always have.
Not my cup of tea.