Think Before You Post!

I wish I could say this was an April Fools' joke, but it's not. 

Yesterday a video was posted online of an African elephant being shot and butchered.  The video starts out talking about how the elephants were damaging a crop field for the villagers, then shows darkness for a while until the elephants were spotlighted and shot in the night, after that pictures of the shooter with his trophy kill were shown. The video was concluded with locals skinning and butchering the elephant.  What made this online video so publicized?  The shooter was the CEO of GoDaddy.com and the locals butchering the elephant were wearing GoDaddy.com hats. 

While some people would feel that killing the elephants was necessary to protect the crops and that its good to use the food to feed the locals, many will not understand that stance.  African elephants are an endangered species, shooting animals at night is a form of poaching, and the CEO was pictured in many poses with his trophy kill.  Also, if you have a 43 million dollar company you can afford other ways to protect the crops from elephants without killing them. 

Many people are upset with GoDaddy.com for the decision to post this video online.  Online domain company NameCheap.com even set up a deal for people to switch their domain service from GoDaddy.com at a discounted rate and will donate a portion of the proceeds to Save the Elephants. 

Some companies love bad press and some do not.  Before you post things online, on blogs, or on other social media sites think about the possible consequences.  

 To see the video go here.