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, January 12, 2011

STATISTICS SHOWS: NO TRADE = MORE POACHING

Dr. Richard Emslie, Scientific Officer IUCN SSC African Rhino Specialist Group, presented statistics to the recently held ministerial rhino summit illustrating that the horrendous increase in rhino poaching directly correlates with the dramatic clamp down on permits issued to Vietnamese hunters. Hunting would have been mainly males, poaching has included pregnant cows and calves thus affecting our ability to increase our rhino numbers in the future.

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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 1, 2012 at 3:53 AM

    Dr. Emslie is blaming the increase of rhino poaching on the ban of rhino horn sales in SA and other clampdowns, but the entire industry is being fueled by sales of wild rhino to commercial rhino enterprises (farms / hunters etc.) Previously rhino were protected in national and provincial parks but now they can be accessed by anyone with a cheque book. What he doesn't mention is that the rhino horn is of no beneficial use to mankind and by encouraging the sale and use of rhino horn one is actually condoning fraud. The Rhinoceros of South Africa are endangered and number less than 20,000 - hardly sufficient to satisfy demand from over 1 Billion misguided Far Easterns. The call for legalising trade is coming from parties (Government and private) who have stockpiles of rhino horn and want to see these turned into dollars - and to hang with ethics!

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  2. AnonymousMarch 19, 2012 at 7:41 AM

    CITES should not lift this ban at all. If you can not control the illegal trade then one must not think about opening the market up to the trade in Rhino horn.

    Rhinos will still be in great danger that are not farmed and with very lack research on this subject then we could loose the Rhino for good.

    The problem we are seeing as well are trophy hunters cashing in on this trade to, they are selling the Rhino horn that they "should keep by law" to asian buyers. We also see many vietnamese now buying hunting permits that have never hunted in there life. Most of these are Prostitutes that are being used in organised crime.

    All trophy hunting must be banned, along with a full census carried out now to determine the population of the white Rhino. We have seen some figures that we can not determine are factual quoting "there are only 4,000+ rhino left in South Africa"

    We must say no to the ban being lifted as of immediate effect. Please sign the petition below.
    http://www.change.org/petitions/say-no-to-c-i-t-e-s-lifting-the-ban-on-rhino-horn-trade

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  3. AnonymousJune 26, 2012 at 9:47 AM

    Rhino poaching MUST be stopped immediately no matter if it will help humans or not.
    People only think about how the extinction of a certain animal will affect humans. Why can't animals in particular just be living creatures that breathe just like we do?

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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