GoDaddy's Bob Parsons Named 'Scummiest CEO of the Year'

Elephant Killing Led to Controversy

Carol Bengle Gilbert
Carol Bengle Gilbert, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Apr 1, 2011 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Outrage over elephant hunting has given GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons the dubious distinction of being named "Scummiest CEO of the Year." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals offered up the new moniker after learning that Parsons "has killed at least one elephant and a leopard for his personal enjoyment."

PETA immediately pulled its account from GoDaddy, an Internet domain hosting service, and urged others to do the same.

Parsons posted on Twitter Thursday that he'd be participating in 10 national interviews and appear on the news "to explain why it's a good thing to help starving people." Parsons contends that his elephant hunting in Zimbabwe was done at the request of locals who wanted their crops protected from the elephants. He has also said that the elephant meat fed hungry Zimbabweans.

"They are subsistence farmers. If their crop isn't harvested, they don't eat," Parsons told CNN. He called the elephant meat a bonus for people who "literally have nothing" and are "on the brink of starvation."

A number of anti-Parsons Facebook groups have sprung up in response to the killing. "Give GoDaddy the Boot," "Boycott GoDaddy until CEO Bob 'The Butcher' Parsons resigns," and "Bob Parsons CEO of GoDaddy is an Elephant Killer" are among those groups.

On Parsons' personal blog, viewer comments on his elephant shoot video are mixed, but tend toward disapproval of Parsons' elephant killing.

Gene Taylor, who describes himself as a fan of Parsons and a fan and customer of GoDaddy said, in part, "I have been to Zimbabwe. The elephants are NOT killing the crops and family's that run the farms, Robert Mugabe is... It it not the elephant herds that need culling, it is uninformed trophy hunting tourists who pay huge sums of money just for the thrill of the kill."

Sarcasm fairly dripped from Elizabeth O'Mara's comment: "Wow Bob, you are a hero! Shooting evil elephants to feed starving Africans. Why work with the villages to drill wells for clean water, build school, and develop sustainable farming practices when you can pop a few elephants and have a giant BBQ. Your leadership and clear vision puts you right up there with the captain of the Titanic."

Parsons thanked Greg Vogt for his comment. Vogt said, in part, that "the day the meat value of wildlife exceeds the tourism value of wildlife, wildlife will disappear. Like it or not, legal hunting brings millions of dollars in conservation areas. I do not hunt but understand the role of hunting in conservation."

PETA maintains that there are means to protect crops that don't harm elephants. Barriers constructed of chili-infused string and beehives on poles are effective deterrents, PETA says.

According to PETA, "Instead of coming up with flimsy excuses for killing these highly intelligent and social animals, Parsons should use his wealth to fund humane solutions to human/elephant conflicts."

GoDaddy spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll says PETA's boycott has not caused a significant change in business.

Published by Carol Bengle Gilbert - Featured Contributor in Travel and Lifestyle

2010 Yahoo! Outstanding Contributor of the Year, Carol has consistently been designated a Top 100 Yahoo! Contributor Network writer. She received a 2008 People's Media Award for "Best Article." Carol’s pr...  View profile

9 Comments

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  • Travis Warren4/6/2011

    Great article!! continue to expose these maniacs. Money has all their brains scrambled and I agree with your comment Jeff, while we can see the madness witht he elephant, the crime that goes down on Wall Street dwarfs all else in my opinion. thi

  • Jeff Musall4/5/2011

    While it was a major gaffe, it shows the misdirected anger people can display. While I agree with Orchiolum that he is a wealthy dumbass, the criminal activity of some on Wall Street and the energy sector, for example, should draw stronger ire.

  • J.D.4/4/2011

    If Bob Parsons killing elephants is not acceptable you can show your disapproval by avoiding any “internet contact” with “godaddy.com”.

    Run C:\Windows\SysWOW64\en-US\WF.msc (or simply WF.msc) to open “Windows Firewall with Advanced Security”.
    Click on "Inbound Rules" then from "Actions" select "New Rule".
    We want a "custom" rule, for "all programs", and "any protocol type" that applies to "these IP addresses (from remote section). Click Add and select "this IP address range" option (the “scope” section)
    from 208.108.0.0 to 208.109.255.255
    from 216.68.0.0 to 216.71.255.255
    from 64.202.160.0 to 64.202.191.255
    from 97.74.0.0 to 97.74.255.255

    Name this ‘inbound rule “elephant killer” and create an identic “outbound rule”; if you know other IP ranges making business with Bob Parsons please make them public.

  • CM4/3/2011

    Bob Parson's most certainly has damaged the GoDaddy brand and should resign from any position of decision making management in an effort to stem the tide of customers defecting to alternative brands in this very generic world of domain name registration and web hosting. There is no good reason for a business to stay with the brand if it might upset even just one of their customers.

    Personally I don't care why he wanted to kill an elephant, nor do I know if it was right or wrong, but why he felt the need to not only produce and publish a video, but to publish a photo of him sitting on the slaughtered animal in a image that harks back to the Abu Ghraib prison photos is just madness. Now I have spent my weekend fielding calls and emails from scores of clients asking why I put them on GoDaddy and when I can get them off. This ego fueled public relations blunder of Bob's is costing me time and money. Why should I have to pay for his inability to act professionally? His

  • Bridgitte Williams4/1/2011

    Great reporting and EWWW...he is...sheesh. :-)

  • Maria Roth4/1/2011

    I don't understand the role of hunters in wildlife conservation. I guess they don't want animals to go extinct so they can continue to kill them? We were in Cabela's last weekend and went through a huge display of hundreds of dead-and-stuffed white-tail deer, and the goal of this display was to show how we must conserve these deer...I'm so confused.

  • Orchiolum4/1/2011

    I've switched all of my domain names from GoDaddy to another company. GoDaddy continues to objectify women, and after the elephant slaughter by another wealthy dumbass simply for the thrill of the kill, I won't be back. Ever. Period.

  • Charlotte Kuchinsky4/1/2011

    Sad that people still do that.

  • David A. Reinstein, LCSW4/1/2011

    The Best of the Worse, huh?

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