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!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

'Let us all pull in the same direction to save the rhino'

It is great to see big names throwing their weight in with rhino conservation - Woolworths has partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and pledged funds from the sale of limited edition reusable bags to help combat rhino poaching. Total, Toyota and Jacaranda 94.2 has also put their money where it matters in supporting anti-rhino poaching campaigns with fund raising and large fundings – we can also make a difference, no matter how small!

The media is still filled with rhino news; some statistical sad stories of more poaching and others more inspiring and hopeful. The overall rhino awareness in Southern Africa has multiplied immensely over the last six months, not for the right reasons unfortunately, but hopefully from all this will come a little good.

As Ian Michler states in his article ‘Rhino Rage’ – “opinion is broadly divided along pro- or anti-use lines” and as history prevails, this will always be the case in all aspects of life. Unfortunately we cannot debate over this too long for the war has started and we need to put politics aside for our rhino’s sake.

It is true that rhino farmer’s approach is more agricultural than others, and yes it needs to be profitable – other than government institutions and game parks/lodges earning revenue on other levels, agricultural farming (regardless of your chosen agricultural field) is a business and needs to be self-sustainable. Nobody frowns upon game farmers breeding Springbuck, Buffalo, Sable, Roan etc as a profitable industry nor when they have game abattoirs or hunters come in and cull the numbers, KILLING the animals?

We all need to take one step back and look at the bigger picture as a whole and see that farmers can breed rhino, and as proven successful before, rehabilitate and release live rhino back into parks and increase roaming wild rhino for our grandchildren to admire, but at the same time increase the global numbers and supply a demand of rhino horn by means of horn farming from live animals without killing the rhino!

And if the sale of every horn in stock pile - already removed from a rhino, whether by means of de-horning a live rhino as an anti-poaching measure or from an animal that died - can prevent one rhino being killed for their horn, then burning such stock piles will not benefit the rhino in any way! Rather flood the market with these already ‘dead’ horn and see if it does bring the poaching numbers down, what do we have to lose? The horn is already there and we are in desperate times to get a solution for the devastating situation we are in.

Let us all stand together and pull in the same direction to save the rhino, instead of pointing fingers and questioning each others motives and drives.
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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