The rhino is certainly one of the most endangered large mammals in Southern Africa and it is definitely threatened with extinction and yet the very people who should be saving it i.e. CITES and our nature conservation authorities are helping instead to push it to extinction.

The Rhino (uniquely amongst our large animals) grows its horn again if it is cut off, in other words you can cut it off with no ill effects to the Rhino and in two or three years time you can cut it off again. The Rhino lives for up to 40 years so why would you want to kill it at any stage during that 40 years but most Rhino in this country are killed long before they even reach the half way mark.

It is a fact that anyone who wants a permit to take a Rhino horn out of this country must kill the Rhino first. The only exception is if you export the live rhino with its horn intact. Either way this country loses a rhino which we can simply not afford as it is one of our most valuable natural resources. It has now been proven that when nature conservation stopped issuing permits to Vietnamese, poaching rocketed. Yet we have so much horn in state coffers and being carried on live rhinos in the private sector all of which could be used to reduce poaching without harm to the rhino!

It is a fact that the majority of rhino hunters in this country are pseudo hunters and they do not want to kill the animal, they only want the horn. But our regulations (national and international) force them to kill the animal to get a permit to export the horn.

The government and CITES could dramatically immediately reduce the poaching by legalizing the trade in the Rhino horn.

It is time we did something to stop this atrocious slaughter…we need your voice!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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.

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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

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.
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

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?
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“Did you know these rhino facts?”

  • • Rhino are endangered and nearing extinction due to relentless hunting and poaching
  • • Rhino populations have declined by 90 percent since 1970
  • • Rhino are classified in 5 species all of which are endangered. We have two species in Africa – the Black rhino and White rhino
  • • Rhino horn is not a true horn and is made of thickly matted hair
  • • Rhino horn can be removed from the rhino with no ill effect to the animal if done professionally
  • • Rhino horn regrows to a substantial length with in four years
  • • Rhino horn can only be exported as a hunting (killed rhino) trophy
  • • Rhino horn stock piles exist that could be sold to support conservation