By Meghan Frank
Rock Center
Just days after we aired “Last Stand,” a Rock Center story on the epidemic of illegal rhino poaching in South Africa, we received horrible news. Poachers had attacked three of the rhinos featured in our report.
Our Rock Center investigation that aired in February looked at the dramatic spike in rhino poaching in South Africa. The rise in illegal poaching stems from a growing demand for rhino horn in Asia, where the horn is believed to be a miracle cure.
On the night of March 2, poachers targeted several rhinos that belonged to Graeme Rushmere, the owner of Kariega Game Reserve in South Africa. Veterinarian Will Fowlds, who was also featured in our story, rushed to the scene to try to save the injured rhinos. Fowlds found one of the rhinos dead at the scene, but the two others were still alive, clinging to life. Poachers had shot the rhinos with tranquilizer darts, hacked through their skulls with a machete to get every inch of their horns and left them to bleed to death.
Fowlds and the Kariega team began working around the clock to try to save the two surviving rhinos, a female rhino named Thandi and a male named Themba. Fowlds cleaned their wounds, injected them with antibiotics and gave them medicine to try to ease their pain. For weeks Fowlds and the game reserve staff monitored and tended to the rhinos, but after surviving for nearly a month, Themba died from his injuries. Thandi is still alive.
The traumatic experience of trying to save these severely injured rhinos has been heartbreaking for Fowlds, but it’s also been a call to arms.
“I made a promise to a dead rhino, his name was Themba, that I would make every single day, all 24 days of suffering, count, that I would do everything in my ability to turn suffering into a pain-free future for other rhino,” Fowlds said.
Themba’s death is part of a scourge that’s threatening the rhinos in South Africa and the species as a whole. Already this year poachers have slaughtered more than 170 rhinos for their valuable horns.
Rhino horn has long been prescribed to cure fevers and colds in traditional Asian medicine, but demand in recent years has skyrocketed, and some experts believe this is due to a rumor circulating in Vietnam that rhino horn cures cancer. Scientists have found rhino horn’s medicinal value to be next to nonexistent, but demand continues to grow and the price of rhino horn rises with it. Gram for gram, rhino horn can be more valuable than gold or cocaine.
South Africa is trying every means possible to protect the species, but poachers are wiping out rhinos at a rate of more than one a day and conservationists fear the poaching will continue to rise. Already the killing this year is poised to outpace last year’s record death toll of 448 rhinos.
Fowlds says he is trying not to get thrown into a state of despair by the figures.
“The fear of where this is heading could quite easily paralyze us if we don't remain focused on that which we are able to do. In this war, being fought on so many sides, the most important thing is for each one of us to take care of our portion of the frontline,” Fowlds said.
At the moment, Will Fowld’s frontline is tending to the wounds of Thandi, who is still fighting against all odds to stay alive.
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They taste kinda like chicken when roasted.
Shoot on site! The only barbaric reminder of law!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These poachers need to be shot and hung in the street to show the others their fate if they try to kill these great creatures for a peice of bone how stupid is that!
Ahem to that!
Technology has allowed the weak to survive.
I have to apologize for my comment. It is just that it hurts so bad to know that these things are happening. It makes me hate those people. How can they be so unkind?
It is sad, but its not just sad for the rhino. Its sad for the people that have to resort to doing these acts in order to feed their families. They dont do it for fun, they dont do it because they like it. They live off of an annual income that is less than you could fathom. And when your child is starving to death it brings on a whole new meaning to what you would or would not do to feed them. We need to stop the market for these items not the poor people doing it to feed their familes. Ive said it a ton of times but agan, they dont get government support, they dont have a wal mar or a radio shack they dont have cell phones and computers and expensive cars they dont even have the luxury of knowing that they will have food to eat tomorrow. Thats something we cannot fathom. Its something we will never know. So yea if killing a rhino kept my kid from starving i would do it today. I am just thankfull i dont have to be placed in that situation.
This is where snipers should be deployed instead of protecting oil interests were should be killing off those who are raping the planet for personal profit.
I have a simply wonderful idea for these poachers... Instead of shooting them full of lead like they do the rhinos... Post them out on the plains of Africa pour lots of sticky sweet stuff like sugar or honey all over them and leave them there... I figure being spread-eagle while a swarm of fire ants and other animals come to investigate some of them carnivorous will get the word around to the other would be poachers of the world that they should not do it and leave the endangered animals alone not just the rhinos.
yeah except that they used tranqulizer darts in an attempt to not kill the rhinos. Must suck for them to have to resort to such terrible means to feed their families. In a country where a quarter of the people have aids, and the rest live in mud brick houses and have to feed their families by any means possible. Bet you cant live on a few hundred dollars a year. Bet you that you would kill a rhino if it meant your child wouldnt starve to death.... Go after the market not the suppliers. They dont want to do it, its just a very profitable way to make a living, the reason it is profitable is because of the asian market for it.
this saddens me
Execution on the spot for poachers. Bounty for those who kill poachers. Turn this into a business and that should be the beginning of the end for these thugs, who can turn into some other illicit business for cash. The Asians and others who think there are medicinal properties in the rhino horns or bear gall bladders or civet urine, etc. well that will be a harder task to educate them on how they are throwing away their money. However, again, it should be reduced to money. Just like here in the USA it is well known that ginkoba biloba does nothing but take your cash, similar to fortune tellers, the hoax behind these so called magical animal parts needs to be translated into no, you are wasting your money on these products. Then, someone needs to show these people that virility or whatever they are seeking can be found in established medically proven approaches. Not rocket science. Killing the poachers on site, offering bounties for these people is a very good start. But you have to address the market and in that regard, address it in terms of money and not the environmental devastation that horrifies many countries looking on and feeling helpless. Joan Harlin
I agree that it is the market that is driving these acts, but outright killing of the poachers is too far. The poachers are getting a tiny fraction of the profit. And they are only doing these things because they and their families are starving to death all day every day. 20 bucks to them is a years worth of food. If killing a rhino means i could feed my starving child for a while you can bet i would do it in a minute. I dont think you can honestly tell me you wouldnt if you thought you could make a years worth of support to feed your starving poor ass family. In this case they used tranquilizers, that says to me that they didnt think what they were doing was going to cause death to these animals. Its still brutal but it shows that hungry poor people even went to the length of sedating these creatures in an attempt to make some money to feed their families in a country and region where you cannot find food and support for your family. Remember these countries are poor as hell, stuck in never ending wars, they dont have food stamps and unemployment, or welfare of any sort of medicaid. A rhino horn is worth a ton of cash to snake oil salesmen all over the asian world, its stupid but no worse than faith healers and other magic health dealers in our country. Its the demand not the supply that needs to be worked on, and saying you just think we should kill them all doesnt solve @!$%#. Just makes you sound like an ass hole
Why doesn't any1 that poaches in there country and our's be exicuted on the spot. No Judge, no trial, no jury, exicuted on the spot. Also why doesn't Asia explain to there people there is no cure to a damn thing to them but a cold or fever.
You are talking about killing human life over the life of an animal. And only doing so on the basis of weather or not some one has a permit to do so. You are making yourself sound worse than anyone who has poached an animal. I agree poaching is bad but there is a lot more at play here than just some one wanted to kill an animal. These people did what they thought they had to do, in order to feed their starving families. They dont have our luxuries. Food to them is an exception to the rule, not the norm. They dont get to go to wal mart and spend a hundred bucks on food. To them 20 bucks a year is a big deal. I agree these animals need to be protected and if poachers are fully aware that they may be shot if they go onto game preserves then they take their chances but just out right murder over the life of an animal not unlike any other animal we use every day to eat, or feed on, or build usefull tools out of, is just stupid. Every one is saying that a dead rhino is worth an entire family of people. I think you lose your credability with an argument like that
The only way to combat this is to KILL anyone who sells, possesses, trades, transports rhino horns as whole, powder, anything. Just go into the shops that sell it, confiscate everything in the shop. Execute the shop owner and anyone they have purchased or sold the item too anywhere in the world.
This just shows how ignorant people who live in third world countries can be. The best way to educate is to eradicate old traditions and superstitions.
Yeah kill them because they are poor. Thats the way to do it. You would in no way kill an animal to do something you thought would feed your family right? because every third world country is full of wal marts and laws and welfare to make sure their kids dont starve to death. If you cant understand this, i am being sarcastic. You live in your nice life, no matter what your problems are they are nothing as bad as watching your child starve to death. And they dont have anything to do with a foreign country raping them for oil or other benefits. It shows how ignorant you can be. Lets murder hundreds or thousands of human beings because in order to save their family they killed an animal that they have been acustomed to for generations. Its not their fault that there is a market for rhino horn. And in the end again i say it, if it were your child starving to death, or your family living in a @!$%# hole mud brick shack, you cannot honestly say you wouldnt tranqulize an animal and cut its horn off if there were a market out there that would pay you for it. I mean if its rivaling the price of gold thats a lot of dang money. And its a whole heck of a lot more money when your used to making 50 dollars a year. These are starving human beings you are talking about. This isnt killing for no reason. Education needs to be employed aid needs to be administered. There are so many social and economical reasons for this to take place that your idea of kill em all is just stupid. Maybe you should be killed because you use leather in some item you own? Im sure something you have done is just as bad to some one else. Realize we dont all have the amenaties that the US has. We dont all have the same choices, and living in a dirt hole is a lot different than living in a 2 story house with a yard a 30 thousand dollar car and every electronic gizmo out there. These people make hard choices and do things they dont want to do every day to feed their families. You cannot turn them into criminals for that. If you want to stop this practice you need to target the market for it. Not the supplier.
The South African government needs to understand that, essentially, the country's resources are under attack; there is in point of fact, a state of war - even if undeclared - by both Vietnam and China against South Africa. Individuals from those countries, paying poachers to attack and kill rhinos in a SA national park is warfare.
The South African government might want to try issuing Letters of Marque and Reprisal as incentives to SA citizens who wish to go into Vietnam or China and kill those who are funding these operations; give that perhaps a few weeks to see how effective it is. If that doesn't work, declared war first against Vietnam and have the SA Air Force fly a mission to Vietnam and bomb an era determined to be funding the poaching; start with conventional weapons and escalate to one nuclear bomb, if need be. The point would be made and it's highly likely that Vietnam, with no comparable to fight back would cease and desist.
What China would do in light of that would be up to its government. Perhaps by that time, South Africa would allies in this fight and China would actually do something, on its end, to do what they do best: repress things its government deems counterproductive to its role on the world stage. Certainly, if China could be induced to punish its own poachers, the punishment would suit the crime.
What America did, or did not do, during its failed attempt to intervene during Vietnam's civil war is completely irrevelant to this current conflict. This is war and the way to win a war is to take it to the enemy. If South Africa, and the world community, fails to act in a decisive, Draconian way to counter this slaughter, it's likely that we will lose the rhino. Kill all the poachers and those who are paying their wages!
You are honestly saying that an act of poaching an animal is an act of war? Are you insane? These people who are starving and surviving for a year on a budget that you would think of as what you would spend on coffee in the morning. Its not right, but its a resource that some one is trying to use to feed their family. And if your kid were starving to death and that were something that you thought for a second would help, you cannot tell me you wouldnt do it in a minute. Those poachers at least used tranquilizers in an attempt to save the animal. Not every one is a veteranarian im sure they had no idea it was going to kill the animal. And at least for nothing else you are saying that warfare should be levied against entire countries and people over the death of an animal. In fact what you are saying is a world war against human lives, those that you have no understanding of, and those that are so culturally different. all in the atempt to stop a poacher. Well I know that in my country, in my state there were people that poached some elk. Its not right but i dont think the other countries of the world need to start nuking us quite yet. Im sure there are plenty of other environmental atrocities in the world worthy of your armageddon approach. The life of one creature being worth thousands and millions of lives elsewhere is a bit too retarded for the rest of the world. Sorry but thats just stupid
What the United States, Europe and all of Africa needs to do is ban all purchasing of products, trading and investments where rhino horn is being sold and let the countries starve to death to kill off the ignorant people who use such things.
uh its already illegal and banned to kill these animals. Just like any thing else that is banned it only makes it more profitable for those that go against the law and do it any way. education is more important. And most of the ignorant people i agree are stupid, but then again when you are dying of in incurable disease you will resort to any thing some snake oil sales man is trying to pass off as a cure. I agree that it is stupid for this to be thought of as a cure. But yeah its already illegal doesnt make it stop in any way and doesnt help in any way.
Typo in last post: second sentence, second paragraph, should state ..."bomb an area determined to be funding the poaching; start with conventional weapons..."
1. Issue game wardens and all personnel that actually belong in the wildlife reserves transponder beacons.
2. Equip Raptor drones with .30 cal mini guns, thermographic imaging and sensors.
3. Have the raptors patrol the reserves and annihilate anything that has a body temp of 98.6 and no transponder beacon...
Maybe they could export these animals to Texas which has a similar climate to where they are from and raise them on a ranch until their numbers are large enough that they could be returned to Africa. They also might be able to adapt to living here permanently. It's better then living in zoos, and better than having them all die off because of the idiots who have to kill them.
can we start executing these people!!?? UGH!!!!
Yeah execute the starving families that are resorting to things they never thought they would ever have to do to make a dollar to feed their family. If you had children and other family members starving to death you wouldnt think twice about doing something you otherwise would be opposed to in order to make some money to feed them. Remember, those poachers used tranqullizers, they didnt out right kill the animals, they thought they could do this without causing death. They did so to feed their families and selves. The cause stems from poverty and the retard faith healing idiots in asian countries out there as well as our own countries that create a market for endangered animal parts. Those people did what they thought they had to to feed their family. We dont all live in a nice house, drive a nice car, work at a wal mart , or get our groceries from a store. Some people have to deal with terrible @!$%# you will never fully understand and the life of some animal some where becomes a lot less important when your child is starving to death.
Do everything possible to roundup every rhino in the territory and keep them centrally located. Put up warning signs or not... ??
Anyone coming within one mile of the protected area is shot dead on site... no questions asked..
A great challenge yes but well worth the effort it takes to chase these subterranean maggots down anyway.
Or you could tranquilize them and cut out their nostrils.
People! Its Asians mostly, that want the product and not even all asian people just the Vientiane but for who is at fault in the inhumane acts,? Its every race if you watch the video, Its Poachers, that are African; Veterinarians that are White that are helping them get the horns or from other ethnic background. The people that buy the horns on the black market our from every continent and every race its just the majority is the Vientiane people that are using them for medical purposes, that should of been out lawed along time ago in every country for any use. Education is a the key for sure! Teach the young at least so this dont carry on into another generation and the punishment should be way more severe.
I agree ive posted in other places. The poachers are so poor that the dont do this williingly its a thing they resort to to feed their families. They live off of hundreds of dollars a year versus the rest of the world making thousands a year. A rhino horn is worth a bunch of money because of the people willing to pay a bunch of money. And like i said on other posts, a rhino horn is made of the same @!$%# your fingernails are made out of so maybe we should just rip fingernails of of the people that want to buy them for medical purposes. Its all a sham any way its psychic healers, faith healers, holistic medicine, and every other snake oil salesman out there that drive these acts. People blame the poachers but if i thought i could sell a rhino horn to feed my family when their other option is eating dirt i would do so in a heart beat.
should find out who the pochers are and hit them where it hurts cut their legs off.and kill their families while they watch you want to get a message across to these heartless ppl you have to be heartless.i know its wrong but sometimes 2 wrong can make a right....or maybe they just needs start cloning theres two option
Your saying the life of a rhino is worth less than a persons entire family. These again are people who are so poor that the 5 dollars you spent on coffee this morning would feed them for a week. In their position i would gladly kill a rhino to see that my child is able to have food for an other few days. They used tranquilizers in an aparent attempt to not outright kill the animals and im sure plenty of people out there would believe that it wouldnt be that big a deal to knock a rhino out and cut its horn off. They used to use machine guns so at least there is some improvement there. Its not right but the whole deal is wrong, asian countries are all pretty happy to kill exotic and often endangered animals for "medicinal" purposes. So long as there are snake oil salesmen out there duping stupid or desperate people there will always be this kind of atrocity taking place. From walrus dick to lion dick to bear gal bladders the list goes on these retards believe there is some sort of curative property goign on here. They dont understand that rhino horn is made of the same @!$%# as their finger nails so why dont they just rip ther finger nails off? Its all fooling the gullible and creating a market for something that is all make believe. So the poachers are poor african people that are trying to feed their families, they didnt outright shoot the animals with a gun that would kill them, and you cant tell me you wouldnt try it if it were your family on the line. In their situation, in that circumstance, where you as uneducated as you are, as poor as you are, with no other real choice, not like you get to go work at wal mart for minimum wage there. And we complain about minimum wage here. There 2 dollars is probably a huge percentage of what you will make in a year. I sympathise for the people resorting to acts like these. They dont want to do that, its not what they hoped for growing up, its what they resort to when they starve to death. When their kids starve to death. I would gladly kill an endagered species if i had reason to believe it would feed my child when there is no other way to do so. Remember they dont have social securty, they dont have food stamps, they dont have welfare, they dont have vehicles and grocery stores and jobs and radio shack and internet and cell phones and computers and every little stupid thing that we have. Spending 5 bucks on coffee in the morning is a privalege that they will never ever ever know Its beyond the simple fact that they killed a rhino. To you a travesty to them food for a week. Thats not a choice that we have to deal with so we dont really have a right to judge them.
I think this is a horrible thing to have happened. there is no need to kill animals of anykind for this reason, these people who did this are just as bad as Donald Trumps kids who went to africa and killed a leopard, an elephant and another animal just for the fun of it, they should do the same to these people, it is just a horrible thing to have to read about,what is this world coming too, may these beautiful animals rest in peace.
Yeah if new agers in this country started spouting nonsense about rhino horn it would make it even worse for them. All this homeo pathic BS it leads people into false hope using cures that dont work and making gullible retards hold out on real treatment that actually does cure diseases due to the fact that they have been researched and tested extensively. So your psychic healers, your magic performers, and your holistic treatments are a testament to this kind of behaviour, tell people your magic potion will cure them when they are at their most vulnerable and you make a ton of cash animals and plants int he environment suffer and the gullible die and you reap the rewards. I hunt and I fish and I love the idea of living off the land, the poachers in this scenario are people living in a country so impoverished that if they made 5 dollars off that rhino horn it probably made up for half a years pay so blaming them outright is not right. If my family were starving to death and i thought killiing a rhino would feed them i would do it in a second. I think its a step up that they used tranquilizers instead of bullets. To me that sounds like they didnt intend to kill the rhino they just didnt know that cutting the horn off would lead to them bleeding to death. At any rate, Im a pretty good marksman, i would gladly gather up some weapons. Set up some surveilance and work as a hired security person to protect the animals against being slaughtered. I dont abide by waste and killing creatures for no reason. Endangered animals even more so, these critters are here for every one to enjoy and it sounds like we need to start working on educating the cultures that believe in the hocus pocus bull crap that leads the market for endangered animal parts.
Drug Darts ? --Sounds like a Orginised Group of Drug Dealers wanting to Make some easy Money, How about turning the tables and Darting the Pochers then adminstering Truth Searim to find the Higher ups ? --and so on and so on !----last the Anamals Need better Protection ! ----
Killing animals for nothing other than fun is terrible. I hunt and fish, i never waste a thing i take from the environment. I never enjoy the death of an other creature but i feed my family off of it. In this instance, its not people just slaughtering creatures for fun and profit. look at the part of the world this is happening in. They make no money, they dont have established grocery stores like we do. they dont have jobs that pay any where near enough to survive. These are people that have at their last resort, decided to sedate an animal, obviously because they figured sedation would be more humane. Even if not, they arent veteranarians, they are poor starving people that know that if they sell a rhino horn maybe their family gets to eat for a while. Its the asian market that makes this happen. Not the starving people that will do any thing including risking their lives to feed their family. It is sad, and it is too bad that endangered animals bear the brunt of it but the poachers did what they had to do to feed their family. If my child were starving to death i would kill any thing i thought i had to in order to feed him. So dont just judge the poachers, they are responding to a market of things like rhino horn. As long as we have retarded holistic healers and religious idiots and desperate cancer patients we will always have the need for crack pot stupid cures like rhino horn. If you wish malice on some one tell the cancer patients in asia that wants these horns, that the horns are made of the same @!$%# thier finger nails are made out of and that we should just shuck their finger nails off to give them the cure that they want.
you keep on talking about these poor people, then we should try and help them stop having so many poor peaple. i cannot have 10 or 15 kids they should not have that many also. a major problem solved.