Rhino: No Horn Of Plenty

“This is a long post, but if you are interested in Rhino, this is a must read & well worth the time needed to read it!!”

More rhinos will be killed in the next two years than will be born, so those charged with saving the endangered animal are considering radical and previously unimaginable solutions.

Twenty-four-hour watch: An anti-poaching team guards a de-horned northern white rhinoceros in Kenya in 2011. Photo: Brent Stirton

The battle to save the African rhinoceros has all the ingredients for a Hollywood thriller. There are armed baddies with good guys in hot pursuit. There is a hint of glamour. And the drama is played out against a backdrop of a beautiful, bloodstained landscape.

It is a story that begins, perhaps improbably, in Vietnam soon after the turn of the 21st century. A Vietnamese official of some influence, so the story goes, lets it be known that he, or perhaps it is his wife (for the sake of the story it matters little), has been cured of cancer. The miracle cure? Rhino horn powder.

With disconcerting speed, the story shifts to southern Africa, where a series of gunshots ring out across the African plains. This is followed by the hacking sound of machetes – it takes little time to dehorn a rhino because its horn consists not of bone but of keratin fibres with the density of tightly compressed hair or fingernails.

The getaway begins, armed rangers give chase. Once the horn leaves the flimsy protection of the national park or game reserve, where its former owner lies bleeding to death, it may never be found.

White Rhinoceros with a calf at Lake Nakuru national Park in Kenya. Photo: Martin Harvey/WWF

Its new owners never brought to justice. Sometimes they are caught. Sometimes they get away. Either way, another rhino is dead in a war that the bad guys seem to be winning.

The story shifts again, back to Vietnam where even the prime minister is rumoured to have survived a life-threatening illness after ingesting rhino horn. More than a cure for the country’s rich and powerful, however, rhino horn has by now crossed into the mainstream. Young Vietnamese mothers have taken to keeping at hand a supply of rhino horn to treat high fevers and other childhood ailments.

It is also the drug of choice for minor complaints associated more with the affluent lifestyle to which increasing numbers of Vietnamese have access; rhino horn has become a cure-all pick-me-up, a tonic, an elixir for hangovers.

With this new popularity has come the essential paraphernalia common to lifestyle drugs the world over, including bowls with specially designed serrated edges for grinding rhino horn into powder. In a short space of time, rhino horn has become the latest must-have accessory for the nouveau riche.

The sudden spike in Vietnamese demand, the miraculous fame of a saved official or his wife, and rhino horn’s emergence as a symbol of status all came at a time when legal stockpiles of rhino horn were at an all-time low. Demand and supply. This is the irrefutable law of economics.

Or, as one expert in the illegal trade in rhino horn put it: ”It was a perfect storm of deadly consumption.”

The rhinoceros is one of the oldest creatures on earth, one of just two survivors – the other is the elephant – of the megaherbivores that once counted dinosaurs among their number. Scientists believe rhinos have changed little in 40 million years.

The rhino’s unmistakable echo of the prehistoric and the mystery that surrounds such ancient creatures – this is the animal that Marco Polo mistook for a unicorn, describing it as having the feet of an elephant, the head of a wild boar and hair like a buffalo – have always been its nemesis.

As early as the first century AD, Greek traders travelled to the east, where the rhino horn powder they carried was prized as an aphrodisiac. But the rhino survived and, by the beginning of the 20th century, rhino numbers ran into the hundreds of thousands.

They were certainly plentiful in 1915 when the Roosevelts travelled to Africa to hunt. Kermit, the son, observed a rhinoceros ”standing there in the middle of the African plain, deep in prehistoric thought”, to which Theodore the father is quoted as replying: ”Indeed, the rhinoceros does seem like a survival from the elder world that has vanished.”

The Roosevelts then proceeded to shoot them.

Rhinos are epic creatures, gunmetal grey and the second-largest land animal on earth. Up to five metres long and weighing as much as 2700 kilograms, the white rhino, the largest of all rhino species, can live up to 50 years if left to grow old in the wild. In an example of advanced evolutionary adaptability, the black rhino will happily choose from about 220 plant species, eating more than 70 kilograms of plants a day.

These impressive numbers, combined with some of the rhino’s more limiting characteristics – it has very poor eyesight – have added to the myth that surrounds it.

”A slight movement may bring on a rhino charge,” reported nature writer Peter Matthiessen in the 1960s. ”Its poor vision cannot make out what’s moving and its nerves cannot tolerate suspense.”

Thus it was that the rhinoceros became a permanent member of the ”big five”, the roll-call of the most dangerous animals in Africa as defined by professional hunters.

But respect has always been tinged with derision. ”I do not see how the rhinoceros can be permanently preserved,” Theodore Roosevelt is reported as wondering, ”save in very out-of-the-way places or in regular game reserves … the beast’s stupidity, curiosity and truculence make up a combination of qualities which inevitably tend to ensure its destruction.”

In the 1960s, one eminent scientist described the rhinoceros as ”a very pathetic prehistoric creature, quite unable to adapt itself to modern times. It is our duty to save and preserve this short-tempered, prehistorically stupid but nevertheless so immensely lovable creature.”

Such disparaging remarks aside, they were, of course, right to be worried.

We have been here before when it comes to saving the rhino. In 1960, an estimated 100,000 black rhinos roamed across Africa, absent only from tropical rainforests and the Sahara. By 1981, 15,000 remained. In 1995, there were just 2410 left on the continent. In 2006, the western black rhino was declared extinct.

In Kenya, the numbers of black rhino fell from 20,000 at the beginning of the 1970s to 300 within a decade. This catastrophic fall in rhino numbers was the consequence of a poaching slaughter that consumed the country’s wildlife as lucrative ivory and rhino horn was consumed to meet the growing demand in Asia; rhino horn also made its way to the Arabian Peninsula, where it was used to fashion the handles of traditional Yemeni daggers.

It was in Kenya’s south, in the Tsavo National Park, that the war against rhinos reached its nadir – the park’s rhino population fell from 9000 in 1969 to less than 100 in 1980.

Since then, rhino numbers have rebounded thanks to a combination of legal protection – the trade in rhino horn was declared illegal under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1975 – and beefed-up security.

When I visited the Tsavo West Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary three decades after the massacre, I was met by guards in full military fatigues and armed with machineguns. ”These rhinos in here,” one guard told me, ”they receive more protection than many African presidents.”

Kenya’s population of black rhinos grew to about 600, with the continent-wide figure thought to be 10 times that number. Efforts to save the white rhino proved even more successful, with more than 20,000 in South Africa alone. A corner had been turned, it seemed, and the battle to save the rhino was counted among the great conservation success stories of our time.

And then Vietnam acquired a taste for rhino horn.

In 2007, 13 rhinos were killed in South Africa. In the years that followed, the rate of killing grew steadily. From 2007 to 2009, one quarter of Zimbabwe’s 800 rhinos were killed, and Botswana’s rhino population has fallen to just 38. In South Africa, home to 90 per cent of the world’s white rhinos, armed guards patrol the parks.

Even so, 448 rhinos were killed in 2011. The following year, the number rose to 668. In the first 65 days of 2013, poachers killed 146 rhinos. At current rates the figure for this year will be close to 830.

As a result, rhino populations could soon reach a tipping point that may prove difficult to reverse. The rhino death rate will exceed its birth rate within two years on current trends, according to Dr Mike Knight, chairman of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s African Rhino Specialist Group. ”We would then be eating into rhino capital.”

Chief scientist of South Africa’s National Parks Hector Magome agrees: ”If poaching continues, the rhino population will decline significantly by 2016.”

The importance of saving Africa’s black and white rhinos is given added weight by the negligible numbers for the world’s other three surviving rhino species – the almost 3000 Indian rhinos live in highly fragmented populations, while just 220 Sumatran and fewer than 45 Javan rhinos survive. Vietnam’s last population of Javan rhinos was declared extinct in October 2011.

It is proving far easier to quantify the threats faced by Africa’s rhinos than it is to arrest the decline for one simple reason: what worked in the past no longer holds.

The recent upsurge in poaching has taken place in spite of the CITES regime of international legal protection. Security is also tighter than it has ever been.

In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, home to almost half the world’s white rhinos, 650 rangers patrol an area the size of Israel or Wales. This falls well short of the one-ranger-per-10-square-kilometres ratio recommended by international experts, and more than 100 rhinos have already been killed in Kruger this year.

Thus, those charged with saving the rhino are considering radical and hitherto unimaginable solutions. One such approach gaining traction is the controversial plan to legalise the trade in rhino horn, dehorn thousands of rhinos and flood the market with newly legal horns.

Were this to happen, supporters of the proposal say, the price of rhino horn – which reached $65,000 a kilogram in 2012 – would fall, and the incentive for poaching would diminish.

Dehorning has long been opposed by conservationists – rhinos use their horns to defend themselves and while feeding. But the failure of all other methods has convinced some that the time has come to contemplate the unthinkable.

”The current situation is failing,” Dr Duan Biggs, of the University of Queensland and one of the leading advocates for legalising the trade in horns, said recently. ”The longer we wait to put in place a legal trade, the more rhinos we lose.”

Dr Biggs and others point to the legalisation of the trade in crocodile products as an example of how such a plan could work.

Critics counter that any legalisation of the trade in rhino horns is unenforceable. They also argue that lax or ineffective legal controls in Vietnam – where trading in rhino horn is already illegal – and elsewhere ensure that it will be impossible to separate legally obtained rhino horns from those supplied by poachers.

”We don’t think it would stop the poaching crisis,” says Dr Colman O’Criodain, of the World Wildlife Fund. ”We think the legal trade could make it worse.’‘

The debate about saving rhinos is riddled with apparent contradictions: that we must consider disfiguring rhinos if we are to save them; that rhino numbers have not been this high in half a century but the risk of their extinction has never been greater.

And so it is that the story of the rhinoceros has reached a crossroads. It is a story that pits, on one side, a creature that has adapted to everything millions of years of evolution have thrown at it, against, on the other, the humans that will either drive the species to extinction or take the difficult decisions necessary to save it.

News Link-: http://www.theage.com.au/world/no-horn-of-plenty-20130514-2jknt.html#ixzz2TKNlQary

Pink Poison, the Surprising New Trend That’s Saving Rhinos

“This is a great idea, I hope those that use the horn of any dead rhino suffer appalling reactions & suffer greatly; its’ nothing less than they deserve. If there stupid enough to use rhino horn instead of chewing their own fingernails, I have no sympathy. But, I’m not that happy either, that this pink potion has already killed test subjects; especially a rhino at an event to promote the cocktail. If inadequate studies have been performed to test this cocktail, should it go on, how many more rhino will die through testing; will several dying, justify saving the lives of those that are left? Or is there an easier option to save the rhino?”

“I’m for anything that stops the rhino poachers, dealers & resellers; but not at the cost of losing the  lives of an already declining species. If only there was a way to stop poaching, without putting the rhino’s life at risk; to simply catch & use anaesthetics are high risk factors that could end in death, irrelevant of what is going to be implanted into the horn!”

“So think how much it costs in terms of drugs, anesthetics, vets, helicopters, spotters, darts, dart guns, man power etc. to implant something into the horn of one rhino? A rhino, who could die from the anaesthetic or stress of capture: but the process is being done to hopefully stop it being killed by poachers!. Then think of those that go out & poach said species…Why do they do it? Well I’m pretty sure it’s not because they hate the rhino species, they do it for money only, perhaps it’s easy money, which is the attraction; especially when your family are constantly hungry etc.”

” So perhaps the simplest, least cost-effective idea, is being totally overlooked!! Consider the cost of all the above, to one rangers wages & it’s obvious which is the cheaper & most cost-effective way of saving the rhino; more manpower on the ground…but why just rangers already trained up!”!

“What about the poachers? they risk their lives for such a small percentage in wages; so why not turn it around? They only poach for money, so perhaps they could be convinced to fight for the other side, i.e. protecting the rhino & being paid to do so; instead of being paid to kill the rhino! They are already savvy in the knowledge of rhino tracking etc. because they have worked out how & when is the easiest time to kill without being caught. Of course those in charge would have to be diligent, as newly employed protectors of rhino, could easily still work for the poaching kings, on an undercover basis! Inside knowledge could just as easily kill rhino; if done the right way. One just has to think of a way of making poachers protect; instead of kill!

“Perhaps if the government implemented an incentive, to suggest that all rhino poachers who come forward of their own free will, will not be charged for past regressions (otherwise they won’t come; even though I would be so tempted to slap them in chains!) but will be taken on & trained as a special task force, to be paid to save the rhino rather than kill. At the end of the day, it all comes down to money! Rhino potions can not be sold in shops, without those that poach the rhino horn! To stop poaching, one has to think of those at the bottom of the pile, those that do the poaching; because without them, there will be no rhino horn. So give them an incentive to stop, a uniform, a regular weekly income, less risk of being killed by rangers etc. & there might just be a better chance to stop this trade…there is no harm in trying, right??”

Rhino experts discuss a bright approach to keeping poachers away. Please note the following picture has been digitally altered!

This photo has been digitally altered and is not an actual photo of a rhino at Sabi Sand. (Photo: Heinrich van den Berg/Getty)

With over 200 rhinos already dead this year at the hands of poachers in South Africa and no signs of the slaughter slowing, some innovative rhinoceros lovers are stepping up their game.

Wildlife workers at Sabi Sand, a private game reserve at the southernmost tip of Kruger National Park, have injected a special cocktail into 100 rhino horns, turning them pink in an effort to deter illegal horn hunters.

In addition to discoloring the horn, the pink dye can also be detected by airport scanners, even when the horn is ground into a powder to make the high-priced traditional “medicines” that help fuel the killing of rhinos. The hope is to make transport of the illegal product that much riskier.

And that’s not all. There’s poison in the pink

The indelible pink dye is mixed with parasiticides, usually used to control ticks. Though it’s not meant to kill unscrupulous poachers and consumers who ingest the powder, it does have some pretty nasty side effects, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Ironically, these are some of the symptoms which rhino horn is incorrectly believed to alleviate. (Rhino horns contain nothing more than the same keratin found in fingernails.)

This comes at a time when the demand for traditional “medicines” is growing, says Tom Milliken, Rhino Program coordinator with Traffic, a leading wildlife trade-monitoring network. He says, “There is a whole new market that advertises rhino horn as a successful cancer treatment. It’s being marketed in hospitals to the families of the critically ill. In addition, it has also become a trendy hangover remedy.”

Dr. Susie Ellis, Executive Director of the International Rhino Foundation, has concerns about the ethical implications of intentionally poisoning something that may well be ingested, but hopes the project will draw attention to the dire situation.

“If this strategy discourages even one person from buying horn, I think it’s marvelous,” she says.

Milliken also understands the urgency to save every rhino possible, but isn’t sold on this technique. “I’m not sure I fully buy the notion that this dye cocktail has been adequately tested and certified to be non-harmful to rhinos,” he says. “The process of anesthetizing living rhinos to inject the cocktail is time consuming and entails risks; we know of rhinos in the private sector that have died in the process, including one at an event to specifically showcase this particular dye technique.

News Link:-http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/04/10/pink-poison-rhino-horn-stop-ivory-trade?cmpid=tpanimals-eml-2013-4-12-pinkhorn

Govt. Rethinks Housing Exotic Animals At Mysore Zoo

“Whoever heard of a zoo not having a resident vet on site at all times? Little wonder animals are dying if there is no vet to oversee the daily management of the animals. Check out the deaths that have occurred at this zoo (at the end of this post), something is definitely not right if animals are dying left right & bloody centre…one more reason to close zoo’s; wild animals do not belong behind bars for the benefit of human entertainment!”

MYSORE: The series of animal deaths at the Mysore Zoo has worried the Zoo Authority of Karnataka, which has now decided to take a relook at housing exotic animals at the facility.

Two of the five green anacondas shipped in from Sri Lanka died within a year.

Now, the death of African hunting cheetah Tejas, who helped the Mysore facility in captive breeding of the big cat, has forced the ZAK to sit up and take note. “It is something serious and has to stop. I’ve decided to take it up on priority,” ZAK chairman Maruthi Rao Pawar told The Times of India.

African Hunting Cheetah Dies At Mysore Zoo

Tejas is suspected to have died of heart attack.

The zoo officials have sent the viscera to the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals, Bangalore, for further testing.

According to vets, Tejas could have been killed due to the diet regimen here. Pawar said the big cat had high cholesterol (fat) which could have led to its sudden death. “We feed chicken and beef to the big cats housed in the zoo unlike abroad where horsemeat is fed,” he said.

Change in lifestyle in confinement could be a major contributor, a vet said.

“Given the back-to-back deaths, we are awaiting lab results and taking a re look at housing exotic animals at the Mysore facility,” Pawar said, adding they will consult experts in India and abroad.

“We lack vets to attend to the animals at the Mysore zoo. I’ve taken up the issue with the government,” he said. “WTF…no vet on site, how utterly stupid & incompetent; perhaps had there been a vet on site the cheetah could have been saved!”

News Link:-http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-11/mysore/37038569_1_mysore-zoo-exotic-animals-govt-rethinks

News Link To Cheetah Death:-http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-09/flora-fauna/37007471_1_mysore-zoo-b-p-ravi-leipzig-zoo

Information on Mysore Zoo in India

Mysore Zoo (officially the Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens) is a 245-acre (99 ha) zoo located near the palace in Mysore, India. It is one of the oldest and most popular zoos in Southern India, and is home to a wide range of species. Mysore Zoo is one of the city’s most popular

Elephant & Calf at Mysore Zoo

attractions. It was established under royal patronage in 1892, making it one of the oldest zoos in the world.

While mainly depending on entry fees for its financing, an adoption scheme introduced in the early 2000s at Mysore Zoo has been a success, with celebrities, institutions, and animal lovers contributing directly to the welfare of the zoo inmates.

Mysore Zoo Death Incidents:-

The zoo witnessed a series of animal deaths in 2004 and 2005. In August 2004, a lion-tail monkey (macaque) was found mysteriously dead.^[6] An emu and atiger were also reported to have died mysteriously. On September 4, 2004, an elephant died, reportedly of acute haemorrhagic enteritis and respiratory distress. It was reported that the illness in elephants were due to poisoning. As a safety measure, the zoo authority suspended several staff members who were allegedly responsible for the “gruesome killings”. Laboratory tests later confirmed that the two elephants, named Ganesha and Roopa, had been poisoned.^[7] This was followed by another elephant death (Komala) on 7 September despite heightened security. Komala had been scheduled to be transferred to Armenia in about a month.^[8]

On October 24, 2005, another elephant, Rohan along with his mate Ansul, died with suspicions of poisoning. The elephants were supposed to be sent toArmenia as a goodwill gesture. The Chief Minister of Karnataka immediately ordered a probe into the death of Ansul and Rohan.

Link:-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore_Zoo

Ninth Rhino Killed This Year: Poached in Kaziranga

“Only just posted a story about the crackdown on poachers…yet here we are with another just killed! The only way to stop the poaching is for more more guards to patrol the park. I just don’t understand why, when it’s been proven that Rhino horn has no medicinal values; do they still take it?? I know it was tradition, but are people in the 21st Century still so stupid as to think it works like some kind of magic? Get some sort of media campaign going to explain to the people that they might as well take rat bones, as Rhino horn is useless for medicinal purposes. Target the shop’s that sell these stupid potions etc. Get more troops on the ground & shoot to kill poachers! Watch the video below, from last year; concerning poaching etc.”

Kaziranga:  A rhino was shot dead and its horns taken away by poachers in Kaziranga National Park, taking the total number of rhinos being killed this year to nine, Park officials said today.

Information purposes only

Patrolling forest guards came across the bullet-riddled body of a male mature rhino near Kawoimari forest camp in Bagori range of the Park this morning, they said. “Is this saying the body was found near a forest camp for the rangers? If so, surely they could have jumped into action as soon as shots were heard??”

The forest guards also found two .303 rifles and several rounds of ammunition from the spot, they said. 

A massive search operation with sniffer dogs has been launched in the area to nab the poachers, they said. This is the ninth incident of rhino being killed in the Park since January this year.

Meanwhile, a walkathon was organised by Kaziranga University in association with Assam government’s Forest department as a part of the campaign to stop poaching of one-horned rhinoceros. It was participated by Assamese cine star Nishita Goswami, Arjuna Awardee Arjun Bhogeswar Baruah, Guinness Book World Record Holder Abhijeet Baruah along with several people from school, colleges and sports persons.

Also, forest guards found two .303 rifles from Bishwanath Bhola Chapori in Sonitpur district. The two rifles were found in the jungles near the northern bank of river Brahmaputra, a part of Kaziranga National Park’s sixth addition, forest officials said.

The arms recovered today was suspected to have been used by poachers who killed a rhino and removed its horn in the Park’s western range, where two rifles and several rounds of ammunitions were already recovered.

A massive search operation was on to nab the poachers who were suspected to have escaped to the northern side of the Park, sources added.

News Link:-http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/ninth-rhino-this-year-poached-in-kaziranga-332012

Endangered rhino: Displaced by floods, killed by poachers

 

Published on 30 Sep 2012

For years NDTV has been bringing you the Save our Tigers campaign, an effort that’s gone a long way in protecting our national animal. Tonight, we focus on another desperate situation, the condition of another endangered animal – the great one horned rhino – which is being decimated in Assam by machine gun wielding poachers, who are taking advantage of the flood emergency in the state.

Watch full show: http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/indi…

 

Crackdown Against Poachers In Kaziranga

Jorhat: A crackdown against poachers is underway by a joint team of Assam police, IRBN and forest guards in Burpahar range of Kaziranga National Park. 

One Horned Rhino

Armed with sophisticated weapons, the security forces launched the operation at 2 AM today at Kukurakota area of the range, forest department sources said.

A battalion each from the India Reserve Battalion (IRBN) and state police, with 100 personnel of the forest department, including guards, have fanned out in the interior areas of the rhino habitat to net poachers.

Security measures have also been tightened inside and along the park’s boundary to prevent entry and attacks by poachers in the 430 sq kms World Heritage Site situated in Golaghat district of upper Assam, the sources said.

The crackdown was launched in the wake of poaching of eight rhinos in KNP since January this year. Rhino horn is prized for its aphrodisiac properties.

The state government has decided to divide KNP into four divisions under separate divisional forest officers to strengthen the management system and boost operational efficiency.

Shoot-at-sight orders could be considered in the Park to prevent poaching of rhinos and other wild animals, state Minister for Environment and Forest Rockybul Hussain has said.

News Link:-http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/crackdown-against-poachers-in-kaziranga-328936

Rhino reintroduction project

Published on 5 Jul 2012

Kaziranga National Park largely falls within the Brahmaputra River flood plains and gets inundated annually in the rainy season. The floods take a heavy toll on wildlife including rhinos. In addition to death by drowning and displacement on being washed away, increased rhino poaching has also been associated with these floods as the escaping animals are highly vulnerable when they move out of the park in search of higher ground.

WTI-IFAW‘s Rhino Rehabilitation Project aims to gradually repopulate rhinos in Manas, by relocating and rehabilitating orphaned or displaced hand-raised rhinos from Kaziranga National Park. This effort is supported by the Bodoland Territorial Council and the Assam Forest Department.This clip documents the process of the reintroduction of the displaced rhinos. 

For more details please visit:
http://www.wti.org.in/project-in-focu…
and go to:
http://www.wildlifetrustofindia.org/p… 
for update on flood that has hit Kaziranga this year as well

Safari Driver Said ‘Stand A Little Bit Closer’: Photograph Shows Tourist Moments Before She Is Gored By Rhinoceros

“OMG…what the hell is a safari ranger doing, telling people to get out the safety of their vehicles; to get a closer look or picture of rhino? Rhino have poor eyesight & can be so unpredictable. They may appear contended with visitors looking at them from a vehicle! But once you step out that vehicle; you are on their habitat & become the hunted. How stupid & totally incompetent, I hope he got the sack as he is not safe to take people into the bush! She is very lucky to be alive, if I were her, I would be taking the ranger & possibly the company to court; she could so easily have died!!” 

• Chantal Beyer, 24, was attacked after getting out of her safari vehicle
• South African guide allegedly urged visitors to get closer for a photo
• Bull rhino charged seconds after picture was taken leaving Ms Beyer with collapsed lung and broken ribs

This is the photo taken seconds before a safari tourist was seriously injured by a rhino – after she was allegedly urged to stand closer to the animal by a wildlife expert.

Attack: Chantal Beyer, 24, pictured standing next to a rhino seconds before she was gored at a wildlife safari park in South Africa

Chantal Beyer, 24, was visiting the South African nature park with her boyfriend when they stopped to look at some rhinos.

Afrikaans-language newspaper the Beeld reported that guide Alex Richter then advised them to stand a little closer seconds before the animal gored her from behind.

He allegedly told a group of visitors to get out of their vehicle to take photos and even encouraged the rhinos to come closer with food.

The photograph shows them only feet away from two white rhinos which can weigh up to two tons and stand as tall as 1.8metres.

Just after the picture was taken, a huge bull rhino attacked, and its horn penetrated Ms Beyers’ chest from behind, resulting in a collapsed lung and broken ribs

Ms Beyer, a bachelor of commerce student from Johannesburg, is now in an intensive care unit at a Krugersdorp hospital where she is said to be in stable condition, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Mrs Beyer’s uncle and family spokesman Thom Peeters told the Beeld: ‘There were quite a few young people on the vehicle and they probably felt they could trust Richter, who was an adult.‘

South Africa’s Aloe Ridge Hotel and Nature Reserve, where the incident took place, declined to comment today.

On the resort’s website it lists rhinos as one of a number of animals which visitors can see ‘at close range’.

News Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262869/Couple-attacked-rhinos-Photo-shows-Chantal-Beyer-moments-gored-rhinoceros.html#ixzz2JmNoxDWR
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Mother Of Two Spared Jail After Letting Dog Die Slow And Painful Death; Six Weeks Locked In Bathroom

“WTF…if an alcoholic mother of 2 , literally locked a dog in a toilet then walked away; leaving the dog unattended to die of starvation amongst other things…One has to ask…are those children safe? She knew it was wrong, the dog died an unimaginably slow death…so why no prison sentence? We are talking about a life, irrelevant whether a dog or not! A shop lifter would have been sentenced to more! This alcoholic piece of shit has got off so lightly, she isn’t fit to look after pets period, never mind children!! Judging by how much these court proceedings costs, the RSPCA…needn’t have bloody bothered!!”

• Laura Shaw, 23, abandoned pet Lulu when the animal fell ill
• Dog was found dead and covered in flies with ‘overpowering foul stench’
• Unemployed alcoholic fined and banned from keeping animals

Heartless: Laura Shaw has been convicted of animal cruelty after leaving her pet dog to die

Please note: Graphic Images Below!!

An unemployed alcoholic mother who locked her dog in a toilet and left it to die has walked free from court. “To literally lock that dog in the bathroom then walk away, show’s she was of sound mind!” 

Laura Shaw, 23, abandoned her pet Lulu for six weeks, and has now been banned from keeping animals for the next 10 years. “How long before she will do something similar to another living being??? I have a feeling we are going to encounter this name again;because her sentence won’t have done diddley squat to deter her from committing such an evil act again!!

Horrific images shown in court revealed how the animal was found covered in swarms of flies, surrounded by the empty food bowls it tried to eat. 

The mother of two was prosecuted by the RSPCA, but escaped jail after a hearing at Grimsby Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard how the dog was found dead last August in a downstairs toilet at Shaw’s former home in Grimsby, surrounded by faeces and urine.

Prosecutor Nigel Burn said there was an ‘overpowering foul stench‘ and the house was swarming with large flies.

Empty plates and a bowl were found and it looked as though they had been bitten by the black cross-bred dog in a desperate attempt to satisfy its hunger. “I find this sentence strange, as below, SHAW reckon’s the dog would not eat or drink anything…if it tried to eat the bowls, obviously it wanted & needed to eat anything going!”

Shaw, now of no fixed address, admitted two offences of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog by failing to provide veterinary care and leaving it unattended without adequate food and water. “Strikes me, booze would have been more important to buy, than food for the poor dog!”

She claimed that she was scared to seek help after the dog became ill, but when she was asked about the animal’s death she admitted: ‘It must have been traumatic and it must have been lonely and scared.’ “WTF…why was she scared?? I can think of only one reason you would be SCARED to take a dog to a vet…that would be if a previous animal had been abused & taken to a vet; who asked too many questions!! I wonder, did that dog ever visit a vet??

Lauren Fisher, mitigating, said the dog stopped eating and drinking and that she tried giving it milk and different dog food brands, without success. “A dog may be picky with food, but will eat if hungry… but to not drink either, sounds very suspicious. I would like to know if a necropsy was done & what it said! If one wasn’t done, why?? Alarm bells should be ringing in a case like this; with a necropsy being the first thing done! “

‘Things spiralled out of control,’ she said. ‘She did not get the help that was necessary for the dog and neglected her duty as an owner to take the dog to the vet’s.’

Tragic: The dog was apparently abandoned after she fell ill and started refusing the food she was given

Ms Fisher added that Shaw’s former home had been burgled after her windows were smashed and that a large amount of her property had been stolen, causing her ‘extreme unhappiness’. “OH fxxxxxg boo hoo!! Not as unhappy as the bloody dog; I bet!”

She left the house ‘feeling scared and unable to cope’ and abandoned the dog, who was aged about 18 months to two years. “Yea, I bet the poor bloody dog felt scared because it was abandoned…probably thought it better to buy booze than vet bills & food…sick bitch!”

The court heard that the defendant also had more than £10,000 of debts.

Judge Sam Goozee told Shaw: ‘You have committed a cruel and despicable offence. The pictures I have seen show the horror and pain that Lulu must have gone through in what was a very slow death.

‘The conditions in which she was found are disgusting and she clearly had been dead for a while.

Squalid: The house in Grimsby was filled with an overwhelming stink when the dog was found last year

Probation officer Graham Marshall said Shaw had been a mental health support worker but lost her job and later ‘drank to oblivion every day whenever she could’. 

‘Looking after an animal brings responsibility and you simply ignored those responsibilities.

‘Can you imagine what it would be like if a child went through what Lulu did? As an adult, you would never place a child in that position and you should not place an animal in that position.’ “A life is a life, that dog suffered the same as a child would, except it wouldn’t have got that far with a child because friends, neighbours, social workers etc. would have said something…but it was only a dog…that doesn’t make it any less of a heinous cruel & cold hearted thing to do!”

Shaw was handed 200 hours of unpaid work, banned from keeping animals for ten years and ordered to pay £150 costs. “Well they might as well not bothered… what’s the point in a fine when she is already in debt? This sentence is weak & pathetic & stinks!!

Speaking after the verdict, an RSPCA spokesman said: ‘This was a shocking incident. The poor animal would have suffered terribly, and it is terrible to leave a living creature to die like this.

‘We hope this sends a clear to message to people that neglect or abuse of animals is not acceptable.’ “No it’s not, & THIS DOESN’T SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE TO SAY ANIMAL ABUSE IS UNACCEPTABLE…WTF…what was her penance? Banned from owning animals for 10 years, 200 unpaid hours & £150 costs??? WTF…WTF does that say to other animals abusers? NOT ENOUGH TO STOP THEM…THAT’S WHAT…WHEN WILL THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM START GROWING SOME BALLS & MAKING PEOPLE PAY BY GIVING PRISON SENTENCES

News Link:-: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270186/Mother-spared-jail-letting-dog-die-slow-painful-death-weeks-leaving-locked-toilet.html#ixzz2JlFqrq93
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Lulu’s story on causes.com:-http://www.causes.com/actions/1728724-lulus-story?recruiter_id=186595784&utm_campaign=invite&utm_medium=wall&utm_source=fb

South Africa To Use Aircraft Against Rhino Poachers

South Africa is to deploy a reconnaissance airplane to combat a massive rise in rhino poaching.

The plane will be equipped with surveillance equipment including thermal imaging to detect poachers.

It will patrol over the Kruger National Park, a vast reserve that borders Mozambique and home to two-thirds of South Africa’s rhino population.

So far this year 588 rhinos have been killed in South Africa, in what is being called a “relentless onslaught”.

That figure has risen from just 13 reported cases in 2007 as organised and well-armed crime syndicates target the animals.

South Africa is home to the world’s largest rhino population – an estimated 18,000 white rhinos and 1,700 critically endangered black rhino.

The rhino horn is highly prized in traditional Asian medicine, even though there is no scientific proof of its effects. It sells for around $95,000 (£60,000) per kilo, almost twice the value of gold.

Rhino poaching in South Africa

• 2007: 13 reported cases
• 2008: 83 reported cases
• 2009: 122 reported cases
• 2010: 333 reported cases
• 2011: 448 reported cases
• 2012: 588 reported cases – to 4 Dec

Source: Traffic, the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network

The director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Jason Bell, said: “The killing of rhinos for their horns does not exist in a vacuum, but is a complex problem where values of tradition and culture have been corrupted in the name of commercial exploitation.”

“Be it elephants and ivory, tigers and tiger parts, rhinos and rhino horn, the endpoint is the same – profit. And that profit is being chased down in the most brutal fashion by organised crime syndicates.”

So far this year, South Africa has already armed some of its park rangers and deployed dog patrols to try and stop the poachers.

The surveillance airplane for the Kruger National Park was donated by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, whose chairman Ivor Ichikowitz said: “You have to fight fire with fire.“

“This thermal imaging technology will deliver more powerful observation capability to the Kruger National Park’s rangers, making it difficult for poachers to hide.”

News Link:-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20592820

A Few Related articles

• Rhino slaughter in South Africa sets savage pace: 455 so far this year (preciousjules1985.wordpress.com)
• Rhino Poacher Jailed For 40 Years In South Africa (preciousjules1985.wordpress.com)
• http://preciousjules1985.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/face-book-oscap-rhino-need-our-help-petitions-to-sign/
• http://preciousjules1985.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/9-dehorned-rhinos-found-alive/
• http://preciousjules1985.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/39-rhinos-killed-during-10-months-in-kaziranga/

Re-Man Jailed 40 yrs Rhino Poaching – Petition To Get Charges Reinstated For Marnus Stuyl

“The other day I did a post about a rhino poacher who received 40 years Jail for his part in bogus rhino hunts & trafficking.  However certain parties were able to get off!!”

“Well I just received the info below, from my dear friend, Carol Crunkhorn…Please send the email below & lets get “Steyl” for his part in the rhino racket… before he disappear off the planet.”

Rhino killed by hunter – Marnus Stuyl (not above) big game trophy hunter and safari operator whose farm is where Chumlong Lemongthai ran his bogus hunting parties.

Dear friends,

Join H.A.N.D.S., OSCAP, STHN, The Environmentalists and Nikela to get charges reinstated against Marnus Steyl.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/STOP-Trophy-Hunting-NOW/136918922995288

We all cheered when the South African magistrate gave Chumlong Lemongthai a 40-year sentence for rhino poaching, but charges were dropped against his partner in crime Marnus Stuyl, big game trophy hunter and safari operator whose farm is where Chumlong Lemongthai ran his bogus hunting parties.OSCAP has pro bono attorneys working to reinstate charges against Steyl and our help is needed.OUR FIRST STEP IS TO E-MAIL OUR REQUEST TO HAVE CHARGES REINSTATED.

Please copy and paste (or put into your own words) the following letter, sign with your name and country of residence and then share with many.

Thanks so much,

Carol.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Email address:    allison@oscap.co.za

Subject:               Please reinstate charges against Marnus Steyl.

 To  The National Prosecuting Authority:

We request that the National Prosecuting Authority take immediate steps to reinstate charges of organizing illegal activities/illegal poaching, against Mr. Marnus Steyl.

Yours sincerely,

Related Post:- http://preciousjules1985.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/rhino-poacher-jailed-for-40-years-in-south-africa/

 

Face book; OSCAP Rhino Need Our Help – Petitions To Sign

“Please, sign the petitions below for & on behalf of OSCAP & my animal warrior sister; Louise Du Toit! “

OSCAP is a facebook group that supports Rhino Rescue Project in an attempt to quell the scourge of poaching in South Africa. Rhino Rescue Project offers a holistic horn treatment that will help save our Rhino from poaching. We believe that this is one of the tools that can be used to curb poaching.

Our aim is to put a stop Rhino Hunting in South Africa, maintain a Moratorium on Rhino Trade both locally and internationally and to keep people informed on the crisis that the Rhino are in. Rhino horn is not medicine and cannot be traded as such. Stockpiles should be burnt and our Rhino’s must be protected at all costs from becoming yet another animal to be added to the extinction list.

PETITION 1

http://petition.avaaz.org/en/petition/REINSTATE_CRIMINAL_CHARGES_AGAINST_MR_MARNUS_STEYL/?cIHaHdb

The South African rhino horn syndicate case involving game farmer Marnus Steyl, professional hunter Harry Claassens, and Thai nationals Chumlong Lemtongthai, Punpitak Chunchom, and Tool Sriton came to a close on Friday 9th November 2012 with charges being withdrawn against Mr Marnus Steyl and a guilty plea was entered by Chumlong Lemgtonthai. We believe that despite the 40 year sentence that Mr Lemtongthai received that justice has not been served by the withdrawal of charges against Mr Steyl.

26 Rhinos were killed for the purpose of getting the horns onto the illegal rhino horn market in Asia.

Below is a link to disturbing video footage of just of 1 of the 26 Rhino that were killed in a so-called “legal” rhino trophy hunt, carried out at the behest of an international wildlife trafficking syndicate:

(Same video as last post)

 http://mg.co.za/multimedia/2012-11-08-inside-a-legal-hunt/

 PETITION 2

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/CALLING_FOR_THE_IMMEDIATE_REMOVAL_OF_MS_MOTLALEPULA_ROSHO/?ckqfUcb

The MEC of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism of the North West Province, Ms. Motlalepula Rosho by her inaction and refusal to accept compelling evidence and argument laid before her in the Legislature of the North West Province with regard to corruption and criminality in her department, MUST be removed forthwith.

She treats her mandate and duty with contempt and entertains International Criminals in “her” Province by handing out Hunting Permits willy nilly. She does not understand her obligations in terms of Section 24 of our Constitution and by this brings shame on our Country.

 PETITION 3

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/SAY_NO_TO_LEGALIZING_TRADE_IN_RHINO_HORN/?fSrXhdb&pv=0

The pro-trade lobby has tried to justify rhino horn trade in economic terms. These justifications are based on flawed & dangerous assumptions and often proposed by those with a vested financial interest in trade.

Legalizing trade will prevent poaching – On the contrary, legalizing trade has the potential to increase poaching to unsustainable levels by increasing demand and potentially even raising prices which will see a decline in rhinoceros populations. At face value, legalizing trade could bring much needed funding to South African National Parks and reserves. Notwithstanding the real risks and unintended consequences it would be morally reprehensible, highly irregular and irresponsible to promote trade at any time into the foreseeable future before other more sustainable sources of revenue are thoroughly investigated.

News Link:-https://www.facebook.com/events/536763343018155/