From Deseret News archives:
Humane Society asks BYU to not display white rhino
The rhino was killed in South Africa by Fred Morris of Draper, a museum benefactor who had a permit.
"Museums and institutions of higher learning, perhaps a century ago, used to acquire animals through this fashion by sending out trophy hunters to collect specimens from the wild. But it has really gone out of fashion and there are much better ways to set up a museum collection without procuring the animals from wild populations," said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society.
The skin is mounted for public viewing through January at BYU's Monte L. Bean Life Sciences Museum. Officials said it is being used to teach about conservation efforts.
The Humane Society, based in Washington, D.C., said white rhinos are among the rarest large mammals in the world. The group is asking BYU to stop the exhibit, but the school has no plans to remove the skin.
"We followed appropriate procedure in acquiring the rhinoceros in terms of international law and federal law and all treaties that exist to protect these animals. We've not done anything illegal at all," museum director Larry St. Clair said Monday.
The Humane Society claims the bagging of a white rhino conflicts with the standards of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns BYU.
St. Clair, however, said officials at a national park in South Africa reported a surplus of rhinos. He said all meat was given to local residents.
"There's a management protocol that's been defined by wildlife biologists," St. Clair said. "Some of that does involve occasionally, periodically taking animals out of the population when they're in excess.
"Money for the permit goes to maintain the habitat," he said.
But if BYU wanted to protect the species, it should have relocated the animal to Uganda, where officials are trying to re-establish the white rhino population, Markarian said.
"There's no research or conservation value in simply displaying a stuffed trophy," he said.
