HUNTING DOG
Humane Society on the heels of Honeywell’s ...
An animal-rights group is turning up the heat on Honeywell Chief Executive David Cote — calling him an “elite trophy hunter” who has traveled the world to shoot leopards, white rhinos and antelopes.
The controlled hunts are perfectly legal but are being brought to light by the Humane Society because the group feels they are unethical.
“On a canned hunt in South Africa, Cote shot an endangered species of antelope that was once on the brink of extinction,” The Humane Society wrote in an unpublished 29-page report obtained by The Post.
Cote has described his hunts as “relaxing.”
The report, which aims to highlight the hunting of big game by executives and other wealthy Americans — who can spend $45,000 per trip — comes near the first anniversary of the killing of Cecil the lion on such a controlled hunt.
Cecil was killed by a bowand-arrow toting Minnesota dentist, Walter Palmer, on a Zimbabwe reserve.
Palmer became the subject of worldwide derision after mortally wounding Cecil.
Protesters showed up at Palmer’s practice and drove the dentist into hiding once allegations surfaced he paid a professional guide $45,000 to lure Cecil out of his sanctuary and into shooting range.
Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the US, is trying to focus attention on the multimillion-dollar industry of controlled hunts. He refers to the hunters as “a globe-trot- ting elite that kills the rarest and most majestic animals in the world.”
Outrage over the Palmer incident led 45 major airlines to stop shipping trophies of Africa’s so-called Big Five — the buffalo, elephant, leopard, lion and rhinoceros.
Cote’s love of hunting is no secret. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2012 that the CEO’s Morris (NJ) Township office is filled with hunting and fishing trophies.
An October 2014 piece in Business Jet Traveler quoted Cote praising hunting and several other activities as “all-consuming when you are doing them. It is a way of relaxing because you can’t think about anything else.”
Canned hunts allow hunters to pursue prey kept in confined areas.
The 64-year-old CEO also uses company assets — its corporate jet and, at times, an assistant — during the hunts or when applying to bring the stuffed animal trophies back to the US, the report claims.
In 2012, one year after killing the white rhino, Cote applied to the Fish and Wildlife Service to import his kill — not as a single stuffed-and-mounted unit, but in pieces fashioned into such trophy-room accessories as vases, an ash tray and an ice bucket, according to the report.
The white rhino was not added to the US endangered species list until 2013, the report said.
Cote’s two leopards, killed on safari hunts in 2012 and 2014, were also stuffed and sent home, according to the report.
When asked about Cote’s trophy hunting, Honeywell issued a statement: “We don’t answer questions about our employees’ personal lives, and that includes our CEO.”