Safari Club International

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SCI is no friend to wild animals.

Safari Club International is not the environmentally-friendly, conservation-minded organization that it claims to be. SCI is a club for wealthy big-game hunters who compete in killing the most animals for the most awards. Members collect the heads, hides and horns of animals from a list of more than 500 creatures and enter them in SCI's record book of trophy animals.   

To earn every award that SCI offers, a hunter must kill at least 171 different animals from around the world. Many SCI members have records for killing more than 400 different creatures that populate their trophy rooms, macabre mausoleums filled with dead animals.

Author Matthew Scully sums up the group in his book, "Dominion." "Respect" at SCI, he says, means only "the courtesy of leaving enough behind for the next hunter."

"They practice socially conscious sadism here," he writes. "Ethics at Safari Club is ordered libertinism, like teaching cannibals to use a table napkin and not take the last portion."

• See our video No Escape about wildlife under assault.

Updated April 7, 2008

Related Links

SCI Targets Endangered Species

Safari Club International and Captive Hunting

Polar Bears: Already on Thin Ice, Now Threatened by Trophy Hunters

The Safari Club International Record Book a Showcase for Bloodlust

The True Face of Safari Club International: Leadership and Membership

Bending the Rules: How Trophy Hunters Break the Law and Scam Taxpayers

Safari Club International: Founded for Trophy Hunters by Trophy Hunters

Safari Club International: Frequently Asked Questions