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, February 16, 2011

“Man gets 13 govt buffaloes, on loan” – news24, 2011-02-03

Bloemfontein – ‘A black Free State game farmer has received 13 buffaloes from the provincial department of environmental affairs to kick-start his game ranching business’, a departmental spokesperson said on Thursday. (Article link right)

Can the government not take the same approach with the rhino…which, unlike the buffalo, is an endangered species and in dire need of conservation? Rhino farming can uplift and empower black farmers in the same way or even better than buffalo farming. Our government has the ability to empower the upcoming black farmer by making this industry financially feasible and creating an incentive to the emerging black farmer. If this can be done more and more farmers would be interested in the rhino trade which will in turn promote conservation projects and development of new black farmers. This will begin a mutually beneficial industry of financial gain and independence to the farmer and conservation of the rhino. We commend the efforts made by our government to make previously disadvantaged people part and parcel of the game farming industry and we suggest that rhino farming be promoted to the forefronts of this drive. This can however only materialize if government also give the currently disadvantaged rhino a commercially viable and environmentally sustainable chance to stay a part of the game farming industry. If they don’t, rhino will very soon become a statistical part of our very sad history.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

“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