It’s not, though;
And even though it is Americans who constitute a major percentage of the world’s trophy hunters, this small, wealthy club of big game sport hunters do not embrace the values of the vast majority of other Americans who appreciate the many non-exploitative values of wild animals.
Economically, the actual benefits accrued by local people from the hunts have been found to be exaggerated or practically non-existent in the case of trophy hunted animals like polar bears in Canada, according to a report for IFAW by Economists at Large. And in Tanzania – one of Africa’s top sport-hunting destinations – an estimated 3-5% of hunting revenues are actually shared with fringe communities, according to a report by Hassanali Thomas Sachedina of St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford.
When a species’ greatest value is as a dead trophy, its days will inevitably be numbered, just as they are when the value of their parts – like ivory tusks, tiger skins, or rhino horn – make protection from poachers nearly impossible.
This case is illustrated by the U.S. hunting group, the Dallas Safari Club, auctioning off the right to kill one of the last black rhinos for over a quarter million dollars in the name of “conservation.”
The sale sent a message to the world that vainglorious hunters will pay almost anything to kill something exceedingly rare – in this instance, a species already being wiped out for the value of its horn. Such a message puts just another price tag on a rare animal’s already imperiled head.
https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/19/opinions/trophy-hunting-not-conservation-flocken/index.html
Edited to indicate quotes
