Go Daddy's CEO Shoots an Elephant in Video Blog

In his video blog, Hunting Problem Elephant — My 2011 Vacation, that was posted on GoDaddy.com last week, Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons shoots and kills an elephant in Zimbabwe.

Go Daddy, of course, is the web-hosting company infamous for its sleazy Super Bowl commercials featuring scantily clad women — er, “Go Daddy girls.” According to CNN, Parsons has received hate mail saying the ads promote pornography.

As for what his elephant snuff film promotes, if you were to ask Parsons, his answer might very well be ... heroism.

“Each year I go to Zimbabwe and hunt problem elephant,” Parsons wrote. “It's one of the most beneficial and rewarding things I do.”

In the almost 4-minute video, which begins with a viewer discretion advisory for graphic violence, Parsons and his team are “flagged down by a desperate farmer,” according to the titles. “When crops are lost subsistence farmers risk starvation.”

“The elephants have been here three nights in a row,” Parsons says to the camera. “We’re hoping they come back for a fourth. And if they do? We’re gonna be here to greet them.”

Three bull elephants enter the field that night. According to a title that evidently wasn’t spell-checked, “Team waits until the elephant are close then turns on lights duct tapped to their rifles & opens fire.”

Parsons shoots first, and an elephant falls. “Bob fires again,” the title says. “Both shots hit home.” The two other bulls run off.

Parsons is shown smiling and leaning back against his kill, his rifle perched victoriously on the dead beast’s head. The next morning, dozens of villagers — all sporting Go Daddy baseball caps — merrily butcher the elephant as “Hell’s Bells” by AC/DC plays in the background.

“Bulls do not return to fields. Crops are saved. Team leaves to find another farmer in need of help,” the end title says.

As much as Parsons wants to portray himself as a hero for saving the farmer’s livelihood, in actuality there are many other humane ways to deal with the elephants vs. crops problem in Africa.

As Stephanie Feldstein wrote on Change.org last November, conservationists and farmers have already devised plenty of clever and harmless methods of keeping elephants away from precious crops. For example, chili-infused string and beehives on poles — not bullets — can keep elephants away. In Sumatra, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Crop Protection Unit stands guard over crops, and when elephants approach, they bang bamboo and shine spotlights to scare them off. Not a single bullet is necessary.

Parsons has built and runs a very successful company. While it may not be as testosterone-spiking as blowing away a 6-ton bull elephant in the dark, if Parsons truly wants to help Zimbabwe farmers, he can put his business savvy to use by helping farmers protect their crops while sparing elephants’ lives. Sign the petition telling Parsons that real men don’t kill elephants — they find ways to save their lives.

Photo credit: Trisha M. Shears