The Humane Society of the United States on Monday used quotes from early presidents of the LDS Church in a letter trying to persuade BYU President Cecil Samuelson to halt the taxidermy of a southern white rhino for display in a university museum.

Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle criticized Brigham Young University for asking hunters to kill certain animals for display.

"Museums can obtain specimens through other means — such as through specimen exchange with other museums," he said. "Killing animals for museum exhibition is not acceptable in our day, especially when the target is one of the rarest large mammals in the world."

Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum spokesman Larry St. Clair fired back, telling the Deseret Morning News that "a lot of concerns by the Humane Society are based on incorrect information on their part."

St. Clair said that although the white rhino once had been on the brink of extinction, there are 8,000 to 10,000 of the species now spread over several countries in Africa.

The International Rhino Foundation confirmed St. Clair's statement. "They are now the most abundant kind of rhino in the world," according to the foundation's Internet data source. "Their numbers are greater than all the other kinds of rhino combined."

According to a Deseret Morning News data compilation, the southern white rhino makes up 63 percent of the world's rhino population.

The issue, however, seems to be a relative one. National Geographic calls its current 11,000 estimate of the species a number that still reflects the "verge of extinction."

The Humane Society also questioned the true motive and ethical behavior of "headhunters," citing LDS Presidents Brigham Young and Joseph F. Smith.

"I do not believe any man should kill animals unless he needs them for food ... ," the Humane Society quoted from President Smith's journal.

St. Clair said he and the museum "absolutely endorse" what past presidents have said.

"We also," he added, "never intended to hurt a species or its population without the sole purpose to educate and promote research on them.

"What we did was legal, in strict uniformity and in a clearly defined acquisition policy," said St. Clair in response to the Humane Society's urging for BYU to investigate the hunter who made arrangements with the museum to hunt the rhino at South Africa's Mkuze National Park last year.

Museum officials also justify the hunt with evidence of the rhino being an "excess male," in near violation of the park's requirement to have a certain amount of land per rhino.

"Still, it's taking an animal for public display," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society. "You can't take this and justify it with such altruism."