Friday, April 8, 2011

Go Daddy is Gone

I am actually mortified for Bob Parsons, CEO of Go Daddy. His arrogance, his total lack of understanding of ecology, politics, conservation and the nature of animals, embarrasses me. His juvenile behavior and lack of respect for what was a majestic living creature, is disgusting beyond belief.
    Bob Parsons, for those of you who don't know, entertains himself with a yearly trip to Zimbabwe in order to kill a wild elephant. For fun. "It's just an old bull elephant," he proclaimed during the four minute snuff film he provided the media with, and then tried to justify his actions by adding that bull elephants were interchangeable and one more dead bull wouldn't have any effect on the social structure of the herd. Those of us who know elephants know this is bullshit. Old bull elephants teach young bulls how to behave. With aggressive behavior on the rise from these creatures, it is very important to keep their social structure intact. Who knows if the trauma inflicted from these untimely deaths could even be the trigger. And, according to Joyce Poole, Director of Research and Conservation at ElephantVoices, who has studied elephants for over 30 years under elephant expert, Cynthia Moss, the slaughtered elephant was a young female. That creates sort of a problem for Parsons who apparently likes to come across as the Great White Hunter, but was unable to tell that the elephant he slaughtered didn't have male genitalia. Whoops. And this is a double tragedy because elephants live in a matriarchal society,. There's no telling how far reaching this death will be. Next, Parsons tried to paint himself the philanthropist who is merely helping feed a starving village. When Piers Morgan, an interviewer for CNN asked Parsons why he, a billionaire, didn't just donate some money to educate and feed the village outright, Parsons blinked and replied that didn't see the link.
Parsons just doesn't get it. The land is becoming very scarce in Africa. The elephants are being pushed out of their grazing areas and off their migration routes. Killing them one by one is not the solution. Maybe Parsons can put his gun down and use his head and come up with something that is sustainable and correct. Maybe help fund some kind of elephant proof farming, or help set up crop areas outside elephant migration routes. Standing with his foot and gun resting on an innocent creature, tortured and slaughtered, is beyond disgraceful. It shows a lack of insight, of humanity, of compassion, and unfortunately displays a lack of intelligence that leaves him far below the level of those animals he preys upon.
My website has been removed from Go Daddy and will be up and running in a few days on another host. I salute all those wonderful people who have done the same. Go Daddy can go fuck himself.