GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons' Elephant Hunt Sparks Outrage (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

The video below is pretty graphic.

GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons is taking a lot of heat for the video, which details his recent elephant hunt. However, the CEO originally tried to frame the hunt as almost a "humanitarian" expedition. Many disagree.

From GOOD:

In the middle of the night, Parsons, along with his African guides, ambush and shoot what Parsons calls a "problem elephant": "[Zimbabweans] have very little," says Parsons. "Many die each year from starvation and one of the problems they have is the elephants, of which there are thousands and thousands, that trash many of their fields destroying the crops."

Then the video gets really graphic, as Parsons records villagers who come out in the early morning to slaughter the dead animal, stripping it of its flesh. Oddly enough, this part, which is set to AC/DC's "Hell's Bells," is almost a shameless plug for the company, zooming in at one point on the company's logo.

Whether or not Parsons' point is right (that the villagers could really use the meat and protein) hasn't really been contested, but the manner in which he presented the whole endeavor seems a bit odd to many.

PETA has launched a campaign urging people to join them in closing their GoDaddy.com account and e-mailing Parsons to express their outrage.

Parsons provided an explanation of the video, but what do you think? Is it inappropriate? Share your thoughts in the comments.

WATCH:

Comments

[johnbogs]

06:25 AM on 05/28/2011

I use to really admire Bob Parsons. Not any more! Hey Bob want a little excitement... a little thrill of the hunt? Come take a little walk in New Haven CT at 1AM and lets see who's hunting who... At least it'll be a fair fight and you wont be sitting 500 yards away with a high-powered rifle taking down an animal that can't defend itself.

Bob you did a stupid, stupid, stupid thing. I'll bet you'll just shrug this comment off. But I'm heading over to pull my account. If enough people join me maybe you'll realize that you should be using your money and influence to help the world instead of taking out a helpless animal from 500 yards.

Shame on you Bob. I'm incredibly disappointed in you.

[kjanine]

08:29 PM on 04/26/2011

it really takes me back a bit when I read comments about how this was Bob Parsons way of feeding a starving village. I mean...the IQ of someone who buys into that argument is questionable at best. It makes me question the average intelligence level of the bob parsons followers. HE SPENT 70 GRAND on this "hunting expedition". Let's see 1 dead young female elephant to feed a village for a few nights OR 70 GRAND which would feed them every day for years to come AND provide and build fences as elephant deterents for their crops as well. GEE - something really stinks about this elephant mercy killing excuse and I believe it is bob parsons and his loyal (and not too intelligent) 'followers'

[Jimsandiego]

07:43 PM on 04/25/2011

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[andy987rs]

03:16 AM on 04/24/2011

Cmon. If you think Bob Parsons is doing this for anything other than his own gratification, then I have to question your judgement.

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[Diane Noboa]

01:02 AM on 04/24/2011

Now let´s just settle down for a moment...what if the starving people where your parents, or your children? Most people, including myself, have no idea what it means to starve to death and be so poor you simply lie naked on the ground waiting to die because you are so weak from starvation you can´t move. Most of the western-world inhabitants were raised in an environment where its ABSOLUTELY NORMAL to throw all of your meal away if you don´t like the look of it, When did animals become more important than people? Do you know what it means to WALK 20 MILES for food? How starved and desperate do you have to be to do this? Who cares about the person who killed the elephant, did you see the whole VILLAGE feed from it? Let´s all get on our knees and pray we never starve to death or feel the anguish and undescribable pain of watching one of our children become skin and bones due to starvation. I would walk 100 miles to get a piece of meat for my children if they were in need. Let´s find ways to help the poor and starving instead of pointing fingers, Africa is a continent in desperate need for humanitarian help, I wish I could do more.

[Galen Tong]

06:47 PM on 04/18/2011

I don't really have a problem with it, actually. As they showed, the ENTIRE animal was consumed and the villagers badly wanted and needed the meat, with some walking 20 miles to receive a portion. The elephants were destroying huge areas o...f their farmland, and they only killed one out of the entire herd - an old male - so the herd can continue to reproduce and rear young. That was graphic and bloody for sure, but the reality of life for many people. In the US we don't have to see animals being butchered before they go to the grocery store.
Yes, you can say the video was spun to bolster Parsons' POV, but the fact is many people in the world need to consume animal flesh for protein, and that protein comes from somewhere.

[Mike Kleinschmidt]

12:25 AM on 04/17/2011

I agree with Ryan A Stuart's comment posted here within. Less and less of a percentage of our US population is even familiar with hunting nor that their "grocery meats" even come from animals. I have even met a few?! As for the villagers butchering the elephant? A few humans on this planet went to bed with their bellies full. Something we Americans take for granted. Shame on PETA for "pulling an even bigger publicity stunt" rather than teaching others responsible treatment of animals...which by the way Bob Parsons was doing. I will do business with Go Daddy and plan on doing so in the future.

[Jim Todeski]

05:16 PM on 04/14/2011

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.

[PAULTHINKS]

11:05 AM on 04/12/2011

This isn't an issue of right or wrong - it's an issue of choice. Of all the things in this world one can do to be charitable why choose this? If someone's got to kill the elephant, why choose to go there and do it yourself rather than, say, pay a local expert to do it? And, why is this the highlight of his year? It's not that he's wrong to do it - maybe it is wrong, maybe not. It's that this is his preference. And, frankly, that's nothing short of creepy.

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[Ryan A Stuart]

07:45 AM on 04/11/2011

Let's review...

Negatives:
1 - Dead Elephant

Positives:
1 - Controlled Elephant Population, ensuring the continuation of the species and others in the food chain, effectively nullifying the only bad effect of his action.
2 - Farmland of starving people saved, higher priority than the only bad effect.
3 - Large number of people fed immediately, again a higher priority than the bad effect.
4 - Government paid for hunting license.
5 - Entertainment for self.
6 - Publicity for his business which employs people in the US and...
7 - ...provides services for those willing to pay.

Other options:

-Pay to move the elephant, which he has no obligation to do, and would not have immediately fed the people.

-Inform some willing agency which may have, after the farmer's crops are all trampled, eventually got around to moving the elephant.

-Somehow create an electric fence in this area where there is no electricity...

Okay... not seeing how what he did is a bad thing at all.

[Michael Haas]

02:45 PM on 04/11/2011

Finally, someone with a brain. What is wrong with so many of you? Disregard this comment if you are PETA or similar and think killing any animal is wrong. What is wrong with them killing any elephant literally in order to survive versus us killing deer, cattle, lamb etc?

[taxcat44]

11:44 PM on 04/12/2011

It looks too small to be an adult elephant....
There are many humane ways to protect crops....
Talk about crop damage....did you see that area after all those people came, and vehicles were driven
Seems like he's just justifying his enjoyment of the kill

I hunt myself, occasionally, but not because I enjoy the kill.

[meyerdel]

05:12 PM on 04/10/2011

For anyone who did not see the original video, let me walk you through an important, and now edited out section: In his blog, I believe Parsons used the words began to "charge" and even now the video sub-title reads, "Two hear the team and quickly turn and move on them". In the original video, the elephant starts to turn its head toward the sound that startled it, but immediately starts running away from the hunters. It's able to make two or three steps at that point and is brought down. It's dark, light comes on, elephant is startled, elephant tries to run away, elephant is shot numerous times, not just twice, as the new edited version would suggest. Gone also are the "trophy" photos of him and the dead elephant.
Makes me wonder what Mr. Parsons could lack as a man, that he would need a huge elephant rifle to make up for...

[Jorma Joensuu]

07:40 PM on 04/09/2011

The video is not fake as Mr Parsons has himself admitted to what he is shown doing in it.

If the problem now was that the elephant was causing problems and that the tribe needed food to eat, in this scientifically advanced age it would have been easy to find other solutions than killing the elephant. Especially considering Mr Parsons personal wealth and the already dwindling elephant populations.

He could have arranged for the elephant to be drugged and transported elsewhere, for example. An considering feeding the tribe, why could that not have been arranged by other means?

Some seem to claim that you should not judge Mr Parsons unless you are a hard core vegan. The problem with that "logic" is it implies you should not be allowed to criticize animal killing unless you yourself do not eat any meat. But that would mean that if you allow the killing of one animal (e.g. cow) then you should allow the killing of all of them. This is stupid simply because we currently have extremely diminishing populations of some animals, but not all.

Some other people seem to have an issue with the aspect Mr Parsons is "judged", as if he should have been allowed to do what he wants. The question I have to these people is, why not then let those who write against his act also do what they want?

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