DUBBO Zoo has sold endangered antelope to a member of the Shooters’ Party who wants to charge hunters thousands of dollars for the right to shoot them on a private game reserve.

Bob McComb, who owns the Dongadale Deer Park and Stud, has bought 24 blackbuck antelope in the past three years – paying between $160 and $300 for animals the zoo said were ‘‘not required’’ in its collection.

‘‘I see private game reserves as a very effective way to achieve that conservation,’’ Mr McComb, the chairman of the Adventure and Safari Industry Association of NSW, said. ‘‘I’m not going to say we’re going to hunt elephants or giraffes. When I look at public acceptance, I look at the continuum of acceptability.’’

Under a private member’s bill introduced by the NSW Shooters’ Party, which would amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, Mr McComb intends to use the species for trophy hunting.

He said hunting was the only way to make breeding the antelope financially viable and his game reserve would be focused on ethical hunting and conservation outcomes.

‘‘If we can build up a legal and ethical safari trade, a tourist will pay $100 a kilo to harvest an animal. That’s cash weight at the farm gate,’’ he said. ‘‘The biggest issue [is] as soon as you mention a rifle, cruelty comes into it: ‘Oh, cruelty, cruelty, cruelty.’ ’’

A spokeswoman for Taronga Western Plains Zoo said Mr McComb’s property was examined by the zoo’s senior veterinarian before the sale and it was stipulated the animals could only be used for breeding.

The chairman of the zoo’s Zoological Health and Welfare Committee, Tony English, is also a councillor on the Game Council NSW, a statutory authority that assists hunters in culling feral animals.

The Greens’ spokeswoman on animal welfare, Lee Rhiannon, said the sale raised concerns about the handling of animals by public zoos and the Government’s dealings with the Shooters’ Party. ‘‘If the Government supports this bill, it would have to be one of the dirtiest deals done in NSW Parliament,’’ she said.