LEGAL TRADE IN HORN – A VERY EMOTIONAL TOPIC:

It is unfortunate that the suggested legal trade in rhino horn receives such vehement emotional opposition without any factual or rational back-up and without one single realistic achievable alternative suggestion. It is, on the other hand, a statistical and historical fact that the dramatic increase in poaching is directly related to the moratorium on the legal trade in rhino horn coupled with government’s clamp down on permits to Eastern hunters. The simple, and ironically, very emotional question is this: “Why do we insist that our rhino MUST be slaughtered (legally or illegally) in order to supply an insatiable demand for horn when we could very easily supply the horn without killing one single animal?” We sincerely appeal to all to calm the emotions and to consider the facts. Our rhino are in dire need of a concerted, researched and well co-ordinated protection plan, not an emotional, irrational and uninformed outcry!  

Rhino have a unique gift

Rhino have a unique gift to save themselves from this onslaught with a re-growing horn, yet we refuse to let them use it with our legislation and rules. If we do not do something now, our SA rhino will follow their cousins in the rest of Africa to an inevitable extinction. Dehorning regularly CAN save our rhino!

Get the word out there and prevent this disaster and help our rhino in their miserable plight.

Horn stock piles could be put on the market and would prevent poaching

We were devastated when three years ago we had three Rhino poached in a two-week period. As a result we dehorned all of our rhino and to date we have had no more poaching and we believe that this has been a deterrent to poachers but there is no guarantee that we will not have rhinos poached again so we are always very vigilant.

Our horn should be used to supply the market which is now feeding on poached rhino, surely this is ridiculous. Our horn and all of the government stock piles could be put on the market and would prevent poaching.

Please help the rhino!

The Vietnamese do not want to kill our Rhino

The Vietnamese do not want to kill our Rhino, they only want the horn. We however force them to kill the Rhino in order to obtain a permit for the horn; then as our government has done now we withdraw either the hunting permit or the visa so our poaching rockets and cows and calves get killed instead of the bulls witch our farmers would have sold to them!

Why do we not sell them the horns and eliminate the need to kill?

Farmer or Veterinarian cuts off a rhino horn

If a farmer or veterinarian cuts off a rhino horn belonging to either of them (not poached!) and sells it to an illegal dealer, in my opinion they are saving the life of a rhino as that illegal dealer will need to buy one less horn from a poacher, but our farmers and veterinarians are now being witch hunted under TOPS (new rhino legislation) to put them in jail for saving the life of a rhino if they did it in this fashion. I am not advocating that any one breaks the law, but this is where we stand in this country.

How can you allow this to happen in your country?

Have a public auction of all existing registered stock piles

It is a commonly known fact that various stock piles of Rhino horn exist. There is a heated and ongoing debate over whether or not the legalization of rhino horn trade will relieve the high incidence of poaching. It is very simple to test and settle this debate. Have a public auction of all existing registered stock piles of rhino horn and let the result speak for itself!

Farmers no longer want to farm with rhino

Farmers no longer want to farm with rhino; the government loads them with red tape and jail threats if they do not stick to the onerous rules imposed on rhino owners. If you keep the horn in your possession you risk being murdered so under the current legislation, farmers are vigorously being disincentivized from keeping rhino.

Let’s incentivize the farmer, emerging black farmer and communities and they will increase our rhino numbers for us.

The current CITES legislation

The current CITES legislation makes it illegal (with proposed penalties harsher than for murder) to deal in rhino horn yet these bans have already resulted in approximately 100,000 rhino being slaughtered in Africa in the last 40 years but it seems that they will not change this disastrous policy and it is already nearly to late.

Raise your voice; let us try to be heard.

Billions of Asians have been using Rhino horn

Billions of Asians have been using Rhino horn for various purposes for thousands of years and nothing is going to stop them now. The CITES ban on Rhino horn trade has been in place for forty years and during this time 100,000 Rhino have been slaughtered in Africa.

So don’t you think it is time we changed our approach and tactics in this regard?