Friend Sue Kelly shared this horrific image taken by Frans Lombard on 1 March in Kruger Park.
I am passing this image on to fuel the outrage.
News24: Johannesburg – SA National Parks confirmed on Sunday that a rhino with its horn hacked off had been seen at the Kruger National Park.
Sanparks spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli said the rhino was spotted on Friday near Phabeni Gate by visitors who alerted authorities.
A helicopter and rangers were dispatched to find the animal in the dense bush.
More information will be provided when the animal is located.
SAPA
What are we humans doing!!!!
More importantly what are we doing to stop this carnage by eco-terrorists who are hell-bent on destroying our wildlife heritage in southern Africa. I know there are many hard working organisations raising funds to sponsor increased anti-poaching efforts, but it is getting worse. Last year 1004 rhino were killed for their horns. This year by 26 February 146 had been killed, 95 of which were in the Kruger Park. Last Thursday evening Coetzer Nature Photography in support of Unite Against Poaching, an Unitrans initiative, had Major General Jooste as the guest speaker at the Launch of ‘Postcards from Africa’. All the proceeds of the ‘Post cards from Africa’ artworks are being donated to Unite Against Poaching initiative. The stats given by Major General Jooste that evening were astonishing. If I remember rightly, he indicated there were around 85 poaching incursions into Kruger park each month, and he was not talking about buck snaring for bush meat. That is a lot of criminals walking around inside Kruger Park with high calibre weapons – sounds like a terrorist war in a tourist area to me. The value of the horns of 200 rhino is around R1 billion. Of course the crime syndicates are involved – it is big illegal business.
The next image was taken in Zimbabwe National Geographic photographer Brent Stirton of this Black Rhino bull which was found wandering Zimbabwe’s Save Valley Conservancy after poachers shot it several times and hacked off both horns. Veterinarians euthanized the animal because its shattered shoulder could no longer support its weight.
This brutality must be stopped.
It will clearly not stop on its own. It is also clear that ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’. It is a numbers game and while more funds and persistent and tenacious intelligence gathering and on the ground anti-poaching efforts are needed, new thinking and much tougher global legislation needs to be put in place. This is being done regarding Elephant ivory and while it is not stopping the ivory poaching, it is slowing activity throughout the supply chain.
As importantly, somehow medical scientists need to get through to the Asians using the ground horn as ‘muti’ that they are woefully mistaken about its medicinal value despite traditions, as misguided and entrenched as they are!
Somehow we need to re-frame this perception.
After initially having been chased away by the protective female, she allowed this male to approach them and gently greet them.
The image above is what healthy Black Rhino look like with their horns still intact.
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children
American Indian proverb\
Greater awareness and growing outrage will mobilise resources and galvanise heart and hands expanding the ground swell of opposition to this destruction. We want to be able to show our children more than photographs of Rhino in southern Africa in the years to come.
Once the Rhino are gone these ‘human locusts’ are likely to direct their poaching efforts increasingly at our Elephant and big cats.
Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the “the game belongs to the people.” So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The “greatest good for the greatest number” applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.
Howie's Wildlife Images 