Sacramento State's Ghastly Museum

Why on earth would Sacramento State University president ask hunters to hunt endangered animals in Africa so he can stuff them and put them in a museum? This is completely unacceptable.

Sacramento State University's president helped win permission for hunts in Africa to supply stuffed animals—including some considered endangered—for a natural history museum, according to documents released by the university.

Two letters from university President Alexander Gonzalez were used by auto dealer Paul Snider to secure special licenses to hunt animals that could not be killed under a standard Tanzanian hunting license.

Three of the species sought by the university—a lappet-faced vulture, a striped hyena and a golden-rumped elephant shrew—were listed as in danger of extinction by the World Conservation Union, an international coalition of nations and nonprofit groups.

Since the letters were written, two additional vulture species sought by the university have also been listed as in jeopardy. The letters, written by Gonzalez in 2004 and 2006, were released in response to a public records request by The Sacramento Bee.

Snider and his wife, Renee, traveled twice to Tanzania to hunt 84 species Gonzalez said would be used in the university's museum.