Can legalised-hunting help conservation?

[smedz]

I do actually have a story related to this trophy hunting. 

I was on a trip to Forth Worth, Texas with my FFA group. On the way, we made some stops, one of them was Nashville, Tennesee. The group I was with went into a store called "The Boot Barn" where they had many cowboy boots made out of many animals like fish, ostriches, stingrays, antelope, etc. The lady who worked at the store showed us some boots in the collection, now my Ag teacher talked about elephant skin boots being sold there, so to see if that was true, I asked the lady if they had any and sure enough, they did. I held that boot in my hands, and I just thought about the elephants, and then I put the boot down. I just thought to myself, 

"How could you people do this!?" 

I then heard the lady say this 

"They are endangered, but we need to control the population." 

I then thought "They're endangered! They aren't out of control!"  

I saw boots when I first came into the store, after now knowing elephant skin boots were actually real, I asked the lady if those boots were real, and I swear, she said they were actual leopard skin boots. She and I talked about the situation, she said she didn't support what they were doing, I did believe her, but while I was talking with my folks about this, my mom suggested she was probably just saying that to keep me from yelling at her. After my group left the store, I just couldn't stop thinking about the elephants, and I did almost tear up. I'll also say this, killing elephants is like killing people, as these animals are known to mourn this dead, basically they're like humans mentally, only they're herbivores. Those who hunt elephants, I just have one word to describe them: Monsters. Reply