Trophy hunters may soon slaughter up to 500 endangered African elephants as Zimbabwe prepares to sell hunting licenses to legally kill these majestic creatures. Selling “rights” to kill the endangered elephants to hunters who pay between $10,000 and $70,000 to participate, this horrifying plan is part of an effort to recoup pandemic-related tourism revenue losses. But why should defenseless elephants die for profit? Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority claims the country’s “excessive” elephant population is responsible for violent encounters with humans, according to Bloomberg. But the government announced its intentions to permit the hunts just weeks after a new International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment determined that