Safari Club International’s Tucson chapter will be holding its yearly fundraising event on Saturday, June 18th, at Loews Ventana Canyon Lakeside Resort in the Catalina Foothills. At this event, they will auction off four safari hunting trips, with members paying up to seven hundred dollars a table for dinner and raffle tickets. The hunts are provided by four different safari operations, two in Spain and two in South Africa. One Spanish hunt stipulates that "two trophies must be taken." SCI is also auctioning off five guns used for trophy hunting. SCI is a non profit. They claim they help conservation. But SCI has no rules for hunting endangered animals. Elephants, rhinos, lions, and polar bears are some of their most popular and lucrative "hunts." As long as it is "legal," they will not stop until there are none of these animals left. These animals are not hunted for meat. They are killed only for "sport." The death of Cecil the Lion at the hands of an SCI member shone a light on these dark activities. If this fundraiser goes forward on June 18th, hunters will compete with each other to complete the "Spanish Grand Slam," which is when each of the four distinct species of Ibex are killed by the same hunter. The Greidos, Beicite, Southeastern, and Ronda Ibex have distinctive, magnificent horns which excite trophy hunters. With corrupt African governments such as Zimbabwe selling baby elephants to Chinese zoos, and issuing permits for lions left and right, despite the plummet in lion numbers, there is a thin line between SCI and poachers. Money talks, and this is what is happening in Africa, and at Loews Ventana Canyon.  Please call SCI and tell them you will not host their fundraiser and auction. What is going on here beneath the veneer of "Plinko" and "Backwards Bingo" is truly reprehensible. Do you really want to be the next host of pay-to-poach?