Rhino owners strike back
by Own Corespondent Monday 06 September 2010
HARARE – Animal conservationists may have finally found the elusive solution
to the age-old problem of rhino poaching – and the results are as deadly as
the poachers’ ruthless methods.
The fight against rhino – and elephant – poachers has hitherto been a losing
battle, with the ruthless criminal syndicates always appearing to be ahead
of the usually under-funded and seemingly hapless game rangers in South
Africa and Zimbabwe.
But the tables may be turning as game rangers and conservancy owners hit
back targeting the very source of the problem – the end user of the
illegally acquired rhino horn, in a move that is both ethically and legally
questionable.
Just a few weeks after South African rhino owners started poisoning the
horns in a move to deter poaching, the results are beginning to show.
An alleged rhino horn customer in Thailand died last month after he
purchased purposely contaminated rhino horn on the open market in Bangkok.
Officials in Thailand are said to be frantically trying to identify the
source as the powdered horn is sold in miniscule amounts and they have no
idea how much has already been distributed throughout Bangkok.
Bangkok hospitals have been put on standby for an unprecedented influx of
new cases.
Officials are unable get information as the rhino horn dealers in Bangkok
are being uncooperative.
They neither want to be fingered as being the provider of the poisoned horn
nor do they want to reveal their illegal international sources.
The horn is believed to have come from a private game reserve in South
Africa where have decided to inject an effective poison that is harmless to
the animals but harmful – or even fatal – to those that ingest the
contaminated horn.
South African rhino owners are becoming increasingly desperate as the
country is being targeted by hi-tech rhino poaching syndicates, believed to
be working with industry insiders to feed the demand for traditional
medicine made from rhino horn in Vietnam and China.
Four Zimbabweans were last week arrested while trying to kill rhinos at a
conservancy in South Africa’s Limpopo province.
South African Police Service (SAPS)’s Colonel Alpeheus Mokale said the four
men were nabbed following a tip-off from members of the public who spotted
them trying to kill rhinos at Lephalale Game Reserve in the province close
to the Zimbabwean border.
“We received information that people were hunting rhinos at a certain farm
in Lephalale. We also seized a 0.30 rifle,” Mokale said.
The poachers are believed to be part of a rhino poaching syndicate and the
police are hopeful the arrest would shed additional light on the poaching
spree that has gripped South Africa.
Rhino poaching has reached epidemic proportions in South Africa, with at
least 182 rhinos lost so far this year.
South Africa’s rhino population is being besieged by well-organized and
well-armed rhino poaching syndicates that are believed to be colluding with
industry insiders.
The poaching has increased in recent months despite attempts by the South
African military to intensify patrols within the park.
South African National Parks says the poachers have become more
sophisticated and are often armed with the latest guns and ammunition,
night-vision equipment and use small helicopters that can be “loaded on the
back of a small pickup truck”.