For $350,000, an anonymous hunter will have the chance to hunt and kill a black rhino, an animal in danger of extinction — all in the name of conservation.
The Dallas Safari Club, which bills itself as an organization of hunters, conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts, auctioned off on Saturday a permit given by the Namibian government to hunt a single black rhino. The government issues five such permits every year.

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The auction proceeds will go towards the Namibian government's efforts to save a species that wildlife organizations list as "critically endangered." This is the first time a permit to kill a black rhino has been auctioned off outside of the African country.
The auction's promoters know it sounds counterintuitive, but they believe that raising money by selling hunting permits is the best way to give Namibia, a country with a weak economy, significant funds to save a species that's the target of poachers — and ultimately give black rhinos a better chance at surviving.
"This is the best way to have the biggest impact on increasing the black rhino population," Ben Carter, executive director of the Dallas Safari Club, told CNN. "We're relying on science and biologists. This is the best way to support the population of black rhinos."
The Namibian government will closely monitor the hunt, and will only allow for the kill of a single, post-breeding bull. These older rhinos can no longer help reproduce, and may sometimes even kill younger bulls because the former are "very aggressive" and "territorial," Carter explained.
There are only around 5,000 black rhinos left in the world, of which 1,700 in Namibia.
However, conservation groups are not convinced that this is the best way to save black rhinos.
"It's a farce to say that this is being done for conservation," said Jeffrey Flocken, North America's regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "This auction is telling the world that an American will pay anything to kill their species."
"This is, in fact, making a spectacle of killing an endangered species."
That sentiment seems to be shared by other people online. A petition on Causes.com to stop the auction was signed by more than 75,000 people.
"If I put aside my feelings about auctioning off the rights to deliberately kill an animal, not for protection, not for food, but simply for the sake of bagging a trophy, I'm still left with wondering about participating in the decimation of a species," Debbi Calabrese, one of the petition's signers, wrote .
Traffic, an international wildlife-trade monitoring network, says Namibia has been doing a good job at trying to save black rhinos.
"Traffic believes Namibia has demonstrated a sound conservation policy for its rhinos over the years, and does not oppose Namibia's legitimate execution of its hunting quota," Tom Milliken, head of the elephant and rhino program for Traffic, told Reuters.
The Dallas Safari Club did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment.
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Image: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images