Poaching of Rhinos

[Jocelyn Walker]

Several arrests have been made in South Africa of 2 Vetinarians plus Out Of Africa Adventure Safari owner! These people are using helicopters to seek out rhino to butcher for their horns! 210 Rhinos slaughtered since January this year! It is appalling! If you are interested in following the story on www.news24.com! These guys simply pay the huge fines when caught without even blinking an eyelid & are allowed to continue operating their sickening slaughter of wild animals in Africa! Stricter laws need to be imposed!

[Stephen]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

Several arrests have been made in South Africa of 2 Vetinarians plus Out Of Africa Adventure Safari owner! These people are using helicopters to seek out rhino to butcher for their horns! 210 Rhinos slaughtered since January this year! It is appalling! If you are interested in following the story on www.news24.com! These guys simply pay the huge fines when caught without even blinking an eyelid & are allowed to continue operating their sickening slaughter of wild animals in Africa! Stricter laws need to be imposed!

Killing endangered species is not restricted to rhinos of course and anyone watching the BBC's Lost land of the tigers last night will have been shocked by some of the pictures shown.

I'm not sure if you can get BBC iPlayer in Oz Jocelyn, but here is a link to last nights prog

[Andrew Thatcher]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

Poaching an egg i find hard. Can't imagine how hard it would be to poach a Rhinoceros.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

Andrew it seems to poach a rhinoceros, one needs a small helicopter, a couple of b------d' s (fatherless in English), some darts, a little anesthestic, a few ak47's and a splash of Sociopathicism, sprinkled with intense greed for lucre! The aroma of 'wildlife murder to extinction' is undeniable!

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

I'm unable to get BBC iPlayer Stephen but thanks! Anti Poaching is close to my heart! As I mentioned in a post some years back, my cousin Joan Root dedicated her entire life to the fight against poaching! She was murdered on her farm on the shores of Lake Naivasha by persons believed to have been behind poaching in the area! Shot dead by a number of AK47 bullets!! Apart from that, being African born & a conservationist/animal lover at heart, I too strongly abhor poachers & the suffering they inflict on defenseless creatures for their own financial greed! Soon, future generations may not even get to see some of our creatures if wholesale poaching is not stopped! If only people in Asia & other places, that think Rhino horn & Tiger parts will medicate them or make men more virile, understood that that is mere myth! Maybe then the black market for such would be eradicated or diminished!

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

.....oh! I forgot to include some vital ingredients in the recipe for destruction.....! A chainsaw & a few pangas/machetes to hack the horn from the flesh of the mother rhino, whose suckling calf requires dispatching in a similar way!
(I apologize to those of you who deem this post offensive in any way but it illustrates the truth!!)

[Autumn]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

I don't find it offensive Jocelyn. I can see that you are fired up and rightly so too. There are many beautiful animals on the verge of extinction for various reasons. As you say, greed being one of the main ones.

Of course, I went to S Africa last year (The Garden Route) and the Addo Elephant Park and other similar ones were preserving the animals, so there is some good out there, however, whilst you have Governments within S Africa and other places too, who are so corrupt, it makes it difficult for individuals to do a lot alone.

Roy and I have had some wonderful holidays visiting parks in Sri Lanka -elephants, tortoises; Thailand, elephants; S Africa, elephants, leopard, monkey, birds and ... ... ... if you saw my post of the Lion last week, UK just near to where I live. The 3 Prides of 13 lions had been rescued from Romania and are at the moment living the life of Riley. So, it's not all bad. But I do understand how you feel.

Thanks for your post Jocelyn.

[Bear]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

Jocelyn

To get BBC iPlayer outside of the UK all you need is to use a UK proxy server that will fool the BBC inot thinking that you are in the UK- I do it all the time from here. There are many free proxy servers, some reliable, some not and some reasonably cheap paid service that are very reliable. I use xRoxy - www.xRoxy.com - and can watch what I want from the UK (or, by changing proxy from other countries too) it is not restricted to BBC. Also useful for when you want to hide your location, for whatever reason.

[ash]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

I did not no about the story but I don't like it at all!
Looking at it from another perspective, if you had no money, food or anything to support your family would you do anything to servive, if you go back to prehistoric times they probably did it all the time just to eat without batting an eyelid.
But its still wrong and in this day and age should not happen and these corrupt governments should be supplying these folk with proper jobs.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

Ash, there are syndicates running these operations! The masterminds recently caught are 2 vets & an owner operator of African Adventure Wildlife place These guys are millionaires now by the sale of the likes of canned hunting! Supply of trophy hunting to swine from overseas of Leopards etc! Just 1 kilo of Rhino horn is worth $60000 or (S.A.Rands429000.) Considering just 1 horn weighs about 8kgs! 210 rhino have been slaughtered by poachers since January this year! W3e are all to quick at saying...oh poor starving person who needs to feed his family! Let me tell you that the likes of those poor starving people are totally exploited by the syndicate bosses, who pay them a negligible sum to poach (smallfry)...to some of them it may be equivalent to a years salary! This is typical of car hijacking practices as well! Which occurs numerous times everyday in the cities of South Africa The poaching we are talking about here is no longer the snares....its flying into reserve areas with helicopters that have hidden registrations, AK47's infrared scopes.....you name it! These are white people....not black!! .....and they are RICH!!

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

Sorry to get on my soap box here but have you ever had someone run off the street...shot through the chest....and die at your feet! I have & its NOT NICE! He was a car hijacker! It was my teabreak at work! I was in our factories front yard! The factory workers were returning to work from their break & this guy ran in & collapsed in front of me He had a gun on him! When I hollered out for someone to get me a blanket to cover the guy....the black & coloured workers gathered around me....shouting at this guy & me......'let him die....let him die...he's a blerry hijacker....die you bugger!' This guy was one of their own race!! He was dressed in ragged clothes...no shoes! Yet in his pocket was R1000 that someone had paid him to hijack a car from our factory carpark in the street directly opposite my office window! He did die...there was nothing I could do to save him! I called an ambulance & police....but it was too late! These are the people you are talking about who ARE starving & will turn to crime to support their families.....yes! Who is behind it......rich syndicates....who take the Mercs & BMW's etc into chop shops...change appearances of things....or take them over the border! I lived everyday of my life almost under threat of hijacking myself in Joburg! Or breakins into my abode! Have you ever heard someone hacksawing your security gate 3 feet away from your bed at 3 am? I have! Have you ever been threatened by a hijacker.....I have Have you ever run a gauntlet to get away from people hurling bricks at your car & burning tyres in the middle of the street, waiting to 'necklace' you! I have, in the CBD of Johannesburg! Frightening enough? Why do you think I left a country I loved so much??

[ash]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

Sorry Joss, I did not mean to make the post trivial or un important, non of us will really no what you have gone through but you have given us a good insight into what it is like, awfull things happen all over the world and that is life! Their will always be crime, corruption and death, and as a ballance their will always be love, happiness and forgiveness, Im sorry for your experiences!

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Poaching of Rhinos

Ash, thank you very much for your reply! I really appreciated your unexpected comments! Some very wise words there! Thanks!