The elephant in the room

It's not every day that one hears of elephants being shot for fun. It's even more seldom that one finds a video mash-up of the event set to an AC/DC soundtrack, complete with editing that tries to frame the killing as an act of selfless humanitarianism.

As strange as it sounds, GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons has done just that. Parsons went to Zimbabwe last month for a hunting holiday, and filmed his exploits.

Despite the outrage that his video posting has sparked, he reportedly remains unapologetic and has resolved to do it again.

Parsons has defended his actions by saying that the elephant he shot in the video was a “problem” elephant. In the video he points to ruined crops and says: “This is a prime example of the damage elephants cause; we really need to find these problem elephants.”

One would think a wealthy man like Parsons would be able to afford to pay for a fence to protect the crops, but unfortunately he deemed shooting the elephants as the only viable solution.

He sets himself up as the hero of the local people, with “hungry villagers” butchering the elephant carcass. The villagers were kitted out in GoDaddy-branded peak-caps and were seemingly happily saved from the brink of starvation.

GoDaddy is the largest ICANN-accredited domain registrar in the world, and in 2010 it had over 45 million domains under its management.

Parsons has a reputation for giving the middle finger to political correctness - just take the scantily clad women used in GoDaddy's intentionally racy advertising, for example. Just looking at Parsons' personal Web site gives one an impression of a man with somewhat contradictory views, a walking paradox even.

On the one hand, his company was supposedly founded on his commitment to provide an alternative to the monopoly bigger domain registration companies had on the market, and to “do the right thing”. On the other hand, GoDaddy is not only the new monopoliser, but is synonymous with the objectification of women and now even the promotion of violence.

While writing this, in fact, I have one of Parsons' video blogs playing in the background (for research, not by choice) and he is ironically advising viewers to “always treat those you come into contact with, with kindness”. Perhaps it's just the animal rights activist in me, but I can't take anyone seriously about practising kindness and compassion if they are incapable of extending it to animals.

Competitors were quick to seize the opportunity posed by the growing anti-GoDaddy sentiment following the video posting.

Kathryn McConnachie, journalist, ITWeb

My own convictions aside, the controversy surrounding the video is an interesting issue. Is it the act of killing an elephant that we find difficult to accept? Is it the fact that the killing was done by an exhibitionist CEO? Is it his conviction that he was doing the “right” thing? Is it the distasteful editing of the video footage? Or is it simply the fact that he deemed it appropriate to post the video online for the world to see that so offends us? The emotional response is difficult to pin down, but for the average person there is undoubtedly a sense of “this is wrong”.

Competitors were quick to seize the opportunity posed by the growing anti-GoDaddy sentiment following the video posting. NameCheap is one such competitor that is offering domain transfer discounts to those switching their domains from GoDaddy, and donating 25% of the revenue for each domain transfer to the Save the Elephants charity.

NameCheap tweeted yesterday that the company had already raised over $20 000 for the cause.

While I am glad to see that some people have taken action and taken their business away from GoDaddy, I don't think it's any reason to pat anyone on the back as yet.

The controversy speaks to a certain hypocrisy that rears its head whenever such acts of cruelty are brought to our attention.

People are often quick to jump on their high horses and condemn the hunting of elephants and endangered species, while being complicit in the suffering of countless other less “high-profile” animals in our everyday lives (and our eating habits especially).

I don't see anyone switching service providers after MTN chairman Cyril Ramaphosa bought McDonalds. The institutionalised cruelty that is sanctioned by the fast-food chain is widely documented, yet we all head in our droves to the convenient drive-thru.

This is also not the first time that Parsons has killed an elephant and posted a video of it online. This is, however, the first time the public has become so visibly upset by it - possibly thanks to the extra exposure this year's video has had through social media. But why is it that we are so selective about what we are offended by?

The people who post photos of their hunting escapades on Facebook, and who proudly announce their latest kill on Twitter, leave me appalled. Worst than that, are the comments of congratulations and virtual “fist-pumps” that one sees in the comments below the photos.

I have no doubt that there are many local CEOs who enjoy hunting excursions in their free time, but they are yet to make headlines for taking part in what is by-and-large an acceptable hobby - not to mention a major source of revenue.

Parsons was quoted in an interview as saying: “For anyone leaving GoDaddy, someone new has come. It has had minimal impact - and probably overall, I see it as a net positive. All publicity is good publicity if you're on the right.

“I didn't do this to promote GoDaddy. But the average American is a reasonable individual, and they see this for what it is. They can see past the PC bulls**t. When the only argument [critics] have is to ridicule me, that's when I get a customer.”

Sadly, Parsons may have a point. Society is so numb to the exploitation of animals by man that in cases such as this, the majority of people will simply do nothing and say nothing. And in so doing, the cruelty will continue, with our implicit approval.

Indeed, we should all “see it for what it is”.