Some rhino owners dehorning or killing the animals: report

Published on 19-07-2012 08:40 AM

7 Comments

Some rhino owners are allegedly dehorning or killing the animals, and then claiming to be victims of poaching, the Cape Times reported on Thursday.

Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela told the newspaper they were aware of allegations of rhino owners attacking their own animals, selling the horns illegally and then covering up the crime.

"We are not prepared to talk about these since they are at their very early stages," he said, refusing to confirm whether the Hawks were officially investigating these claims.

Three sources linked to the underworld, who could not be named, told the newspaper they knew of game farm and reserve owners who were guilty of this crime.

The owners were either desperate for money or had realised that selling horns was more profitable than keeping their rhinos.

On Tuesday, the environmental affairs department said 281 rhinos had been poached this year, mostly in the Kruger National Park. Police had arrested 176 individuals in connection with the crimes.

Categories:
General SA News

7 Comments

rpm - 19-07-2012, 08:41 AM
- Reply
Some rhino owners are allegedly dehorning or killing the animals, and then claiming to be victims of poaching, the Cape Times reported on Thursday.

Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela told the newspaper they were aware of allegations of rhino owners attacking their own animals, selling the horns illegally and then covering up the crime.

iAmThePope - 19-07-2012, 08:42 AM
- Reply
Rhino horn

Merlin - 19-07-2012, 09:06 AM
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Greed, not money, is the root of all Evil.

WtF is wrong with these oxygen thieves?

Animal abusers should be strung up and disembowelled, slowly.

Garyvdh - 19-07-2012, 09:29 AM
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The solution is simple... cut their noses off.

iAmThePope - 19-07-2012, 09:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Garyvdh

The solution is simple... cut their noses off.

And their penises

marine1 - 19-07-2012, 10:25 PM
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We have been involved in this - on a small scale.
The owners are surgically removing horn and storing them, legally to prevent the butchering and murder of these animals.....
The barbarians kill them anyway. Its like a big screw you

Very sad

Nerfherder - 19-07-2012, 10:41 PM
- Reply
Originally Posted by Merlin

Greed, not money, is the root of all Evil.

WtF is wrong with these oxygen thieves?

Animal abusers should be strung up and disembowelled, slowly.

I think its terrible but I know why these guys are doing it.

You pay a lot of money for a rhino, its an investment. The way it is at the moment if you have a rhino its going to get poached.
So you can either wait for someone else to come and kill your rhino and take its horn or you can just take the knock and make some money back.

At the moment rhino's are worthless, no one is going to pay 1/2 a mill for an animal that is just going to be poached. You can't sell them and its a huge risk to have them.

Messed up situation