White Rhino Shot to Death in Florida One Day After Arriving at Safari Park

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has completed a report on its investigation into the killing of a white rhino at Wild Florida, a drive-through safari park in Kenansville, Florida. Investigators found the animal was shot after escaping its enclosure just a day after it arrived at the park last September.

Accordingly CBS Orlando station WKMGA park official told FWC investigators that “we used the biggest guns we had” after the rhino turned aggressive and fled the habitat it was placed in just the night before.

The park’s owner, Jordan Munns, told investigators that the 3-year-old white rhino was placed in a small quarantine area upon his arrival at the park on September 18, WKMG reported, citing the FWC documents. But the rhino broke out of that area, prompting the park to close to visitors for the next day over safety concerns. The next morning, the rhino continued to test the boundaries of its enclosure, pushing against the wire fence. CBS News reported.

Eventually, the rhino managed to escape and Munns gave the order to shoot. According to CBS News, the FWC report describes how staff fired an estimated 15 rounds at the rhino, which managed to run about a third of a mile before falling and dying. Staff then buried the body “for fear that a helicopter might spot the rhino” but left “exposed a portion of the head for us to observe when we arrived,” investigators wrote in the report, according to WKMG.

in one opinion Posted on Facebook on Monday, Wild Florida wrote, “In September 2022, a new rhino began to pose an imminent threat to the park as a whole, and after consultation with Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) leadership and policies, we have made difficult decision to humanely euthanize animal.”

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Wild Florida bills itself as the “World’s Only Airboat, Gator, and Drive-Thru Safari Park Adventure.”

According to WKMG, investigators from the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission clost their investigation and found no state laws were broken.

Kate MacFall, senior state director of the Humane Society of the United States in Florida, to the Orlando TV station WESH 2 in a statement: “The rhino died a needless horrific death, all in the name of a roadside zoo ticket…Florida has many problematic exhibitors; This agency clearly had no capacity to deal with this animal. Why couldn’t they contain him safely? What was missing? What were they hiding from the helicopter? Would an autopsy be appropriate? Overall, it is tragic to lose a member of an endangered species that has just arrived. The way he was killed with multiple bullets is not humane euthanasia.”