In another example of how an ill-conceived Internet post can have grave repercussions for business, GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons has thrust his company into the angry crosshairs of the Web after posting a video showing him shooting an elephant during an African hunt. The domain registration company is known for pushing the limits with its salacious and sometimes controversial Super Bowl commercials, but this controversy may actually cause harm to the GoDaddy brand.

According to Mashable, the video shows Parsons shooting the elephant during a trip to Zimbabwe. Parsons claims that he did nothing wrong in killing the elephant, because it was destroying a local farmer’s crops and he was given permission to hunt it. Most Internet commenters aren’t happy with the explanation, however, and it already seems to be hurting GoDaddy’s business.

After animal rights group PETA found the footage on Parsons’ blog, the organization immediately began leading the charge to have customers dump the company for a different registrar. Picking up on the groundswell of anger against GoDaddy, rival domain registrar NameCheap.com has begun a special offer allowing GoDaddy customers to switch their domains to NameCheap for $4.99, with proceeds going to an elephant preservation charity.

There’s no word yet on how many people have taken PETA’s lead and switched registrars, but “GoDaddy CEO” has been a top trending topic on Twitter for hours now and searches for GoDaddy briefly caused the story to appear on Google’s “Hot Topics” list.

While Parsons is unlikely to apologize for shooting the elephant, this story demonstrates how a business leader’s personal postings can have a significant impact on a company’s online reputation. The Internet reacts extremely quickly to these stories. In some cases, the outrage reaches a crescendo and quickly dies with no major damage. In other cases, however, Internet anger is enough to cause a company considerable financial risk and long-term reputation damage.

Only time will tell which of these two outcomes faces GoDaddy.com.