I have had the pleasure of meeting Albina and John and visiting one of their farms. It was the most heartwarming story to see how much time energy emotion and funds they have invested in to saving rhino. To see so many happy rhinos running free and doing so well is something I will never forget. There are few people (if any) who have risked as much for the rhino. Well done.
Anyone with half a brain should see that John Hume is in it for the money why because it takes money to look after, feed and most importantly to safe guard these precious animal from the greed and disrespect of man and the ignorance of the killers whose only pleasure is killing anything for money. So stop saying John Hume's only interest is money he is passionate about protecting the rhino and at least he is doing something and I notice now that a lot of game ranches are following his lead with or without the promise of selling these harvested horns! Legalize the sale of rhino horn and help save them whatever is in practice now is not working so what do you have to loose in trying this at the very least!!!!
just like people who breed cows sheep horses goats chickens the people who breed these animals make money from it ...these animals mentioned above....arent gonna be extinct in a few years ....we will never stop the killing of the rhino we can keep talking all we like...the chinese and japanese know that the less there are of a animal the more money they can sell it for...and they will never stop until they are all gone then they will start with the next and keep goin...give them the rhino horn and we are left with a rhino that stays alive...dont give them the rhino horn they will take it and we are left with a rhino thats dead
Legal trade is the best way forward for sound/pragmatic rhino conservation in Africa. You anti-trade idiots should be ashamed of yourselves,and should offer thnx/praise/ compassion, to all the great conservation success they had on their private reserve in SA. They have both Black and white rhinos there,and those most in a private reserve in all Africa,with no help from you and your hateful ilk ! You and your anti-trade propagaganda,only fuels more poaching for the African Rhinos .
Dear all,
Let us please start with some basic questions. If you don't know the answers to them, please find out, ask or keep quiet and donate. Time or money.
1. How long does it take for a rhino horn to grow back? (assuming the rhino is alive)
2. How much does it cost to keep a rhino per annum?
The next 2 questions are fun questions.
3. How much money does John make keeping the rhino on his farm? As most people here assume he is in it for the money.
4. If I give you 1000 rhinos for free, how long will you survive financially? And will you loose your life, a family member's, a staff or a rhino first? Some one is going to die, all I ask is for you to pick one.
Then 2 bonus questions.
5. How many rhino's has John bred in comparison with any National park, that is incl the Kruger?
6. How many rhinos has John lost compared with any National park?
And then my personal favourite- other than criticism, how much does John receive from any source other than his own funding, eg donations, government, charities?
So if you are not helping or don't have the basic understanding, can you please please please at least stop stabbing the one person that has bred and protected more rhinos than the whole of South Africa, sorry I mean the World has?
Kind regards
Anne Ferreira
Let us please start with some basic questions. If you don't know the answers to them, please find out, ask or keep quiet and donate. Time or money.
1. How long does it take for a rhino horn to grow back? (assuming the rhino is alive)
2. How much does it cost to keep a rhino per annum?
The next 2 questions are fun questions.
3. How much money does John make keeping the rhino on his farm? As most people here assume he is in it for the money.
4. If I give you 1000 rhinos for free, how long will you survive financially? And will you loose your life, a family member's, a staff or a rhino first? Some one is going to die, all I ask is for you to pick one.
Then 2 bonus questions.
5. How many rhino's has John bred in comparison with any National park, that is incl the Kruger?
6. How many rhinos has John lost compared with any National park?
And then my personal favourite- other than criticism, how much does John receive from any source other than his own funding, eg donations, government, charities?
So if you are not helping or don't have the basic understanding, can you please please please at least stop stabbing the one person that has bred and protected more rhinos than the whole of South Africa, sorry I mean the World has?
Kind regards
Anne Ferreira
I am a Nature Conservation student, a South African and a passionate wildlife-lover with many years of hands-on wildlife experience. I have worked closely with the Humes before, know them well and I applaud everything they are doing for rhinos despite the volatile and antagonistic response they receive from a largely misinformed and society.
At a time when a distant and largely ignorant community is dictating the fate of an entire species, based on politics, bureaucracy and misguided opinions, the Humes are some of the few individuals left that are actually, physically doing something about keeping rhinos safe, healthy and alive, without begging for funds that disappear into a bottomless pit of donations that rarely ever actually go to keeping rhinos safe.
The debate on horn trade legalisation is complex and unique and cannot be compared to diamonds, guns, drugs or even ivory. Rhino horn is a sustainable and renewable resource that can be removed by a veterinarian without causing any harm to the rhino. The horn regrows and a single rhino can produce a number of horns in its lifetime. It is absolutely ridiculous and pathetic that rhinos are being brutally slaughtered for a single horn.
Any true animal or wildlife-lover will be standing on their soapbox, calling for any measure and means that will keep these beautiful animals alive and wandering the African bushveld for generations to come.
The sooner the horn trade is legalised, the better, as it will encourage more and more people to keep, protect and breed rhinos, eventually leading to minimised pressure on our wild rhinos.
Before making derogatory comments about people and their attempts to help rhinos, based on the opinions of Facebook friends, go and meet them and spend a little time among the gentle giants they protect. Hear their story. Walk their path for a day or two.
Before jumping up and down with opinions on wildlife management and conservation in an ever-demanding and consuming world (of which you are all a large part), become informed, at a deeper level than what Facebook and funding-based organisations organisations are portraying. Greed is disguised in many forms.
Ultimately, ask yourself what would be best for our rhinos, keeping in mind that not legalising an international trade in horn has been absolutely, catastrophically and devastatingly disastrous for them.
If you still can't or won't get your head around that, ask yourself this: With rhinos around the world having already run out of time at an alarming rate, surely it's worth a desperate, final shot to save the ones left here?
How sad it would be to have to admit that we failed the rhino because we refused to do anything differently...
At a time when a distant and largely ignorant community is dictating the fate of an entire species, based on politics, bureaucracy and misguided opinions, the Humes are some of the few individuals left that are actually, physically doing something about keeping rhinos safe, healthy and alive, without begging for funds that disappear into a bottomless pit of donations that rarely ever actually go to keeping rhinos safe.
The debate on horn trade legalisation is complex and unique and cannot be compared to diamonds, guns, drugs or even ivory. Rhino horn is a sustainable and renewable resource that can be removed by a veterinarian without causing any harm to the rhino. The horn regrows and a single rhino can produce a number of horns in its lifetime. It is absolutely ridiculous and pathetic that rhinos are being brutally slaughtered for a single horn.
Any true animal or wildlife-lover will be standing on their soapbox, calling for any measure and means that will keep these beautiful animals alive and wandering the African bushveld for generations to come.
The sooner the horn trade is legalised, the better, as it will encourage more and more people to keep, protect and breed rhinos, eventually leading to minimised pressure on our wild rhinos.
Before making derogatory comments about people and their attempts to help rhinos, based on the opinions of Facebook friends, go and meet them and spend a little time among the gentle giants they protect. Hear their story. Walk their path for a day or two.
Before jumping up and down with opinions on wildlife management and conservation in an ever-demanding and consuming world (of which you are all a large part), become informed, at a deeper level than what Facebook and funding-based organisations organisations are portraying. Greed is disguised in many forms.
Ultimately, ask yourself what would be best for our rhinos, keeping in mind that not legalising an international trade in horn has been absolutely, catastrophically and devastatingly disastrous for them.
If you still can't or won't get your head around that, ask yourself this: With rhinos around the world having already run out of time at an alarming rate, surely it's worth a desperate, final shot to save the ones left here?
How sad it would be to have to admit that we failed the rhino because we refused to do anything differently...
A cause certainly worthy of support. Legalization of the sale of rhino horns exclusively from harvest horns, without the dreadful slaughter should merit immediate attention. Lealized farms should receive some official financial support towards survaillance equipment, and possible staff. In an ideal world, humankind would not be using rhino hron at all but I reckon that is too far fetched for many hearts. So at least put a proper legislation in place.
Cristina Silva
Cristina Silva
Dear Mankind!
It is not enough to put your likes on Facebook when you see that something bad happens near us.
If we all don't make any action now, tomorrow such huge species as rhinos, lions, elephants, whales... Will be gone.
It is hard to notice a small type of an incekt disappear. But if the big ones go, they cause irrversible changes on the planet.
I do support The Humes in their life mission to keep more rhinos on the Planet Earth.
They need the support of the community. Let's be the thinking community that cares.
It is not enough to put your likes on Facebook when you see that something bad happens near us.
If we all don't make any action now, tomorrow such huge species as rhinos, lions, elephants, whales... Will be gone.
It is hard to notice a small type of an incekt disappear. But if the big ones go, they cause irrversible changes on the planet.
I do support The Humes in their life mission to keep more rhinos on the Planet Earth.
They need the support of the community. Let's be the thinking community that cares.
Hello Ellen and everyone, my name is Kelly Pretorius and I am senior administrator of Save Our Rhino on Facebook. Every single day I see the decimation of our national heritage, our precious rhino, perpetuated by the demand for a bogus traditional medicine from the East. Not only are they using their horn as medicine, but it is also being used as a status symbol and carved into libation cups and dagger handles, or just left whole to sit on a mantlepiece to display wealth.
It is astounding that there are people in South Africa, perhaps encouraged by government Ministers, private rhino owners and pseudo-economists, who think that the best way forward to defeat the rhino poachers operating freely in my country, is a fanciful scheme to trade rhino horns on the open market.
This proposal for legalizing trade is based on nothing more than a wish to cash in on eye-watering profits that a single kilo or pound of rhino horn can bring. Rhino horn these days, weight for weight, is worth more than gold and cocaine – but only on the backstreet illegal markets of Laos, Vietnam and China. Possession and sale of rhino horn products have actually been illegal in those countries since 1994.
The pro-trade movement is currently confined to South Africa, but there might be some support from Namibia and Zimbabwe to cash in on the potential windfall. The South African government wants to put this proposal to CITES (the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna) and has organized a concerted campaign to make this happen ever since 2012. But such trade requires a “partner” in Asia who will agree to allow commerce in a currently illegal product. This is not likely to happen given the overwhelming public mood in countries like Vietnam and China where people are beginning to wake up to the massive destruction of Africa’s wildlife that their demand for products has created. A positive CITES vote needs a 2/3 majority of member states to the Convention, and already South Africa will struggle to bring a handful of positive votes to the table.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Asian countries like China and Vietnam have been responsible for the huge demand in rhino horn products that has caused prices to rise through the roof. These countries and others in the region have always wanted rhino horn. The trade is centuries old. But the demand has never been as big as it is now – most likely fueled by a massive growth of disposable income among Vietnamese and Chinese people.
South Africa has only recently become the target of rhino horn poachers. South Africa must realize and acknowledge that before they became a haven for poachers, rhinos were already being eradicated in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia – in fact all across the African continent. And don’t forget Asia – Vietnam’s last one remaining indigenous rhino was poached a few years ago, and poaching has destroyed rhino populations in Indonesia, Malaysia, India and other countries where Asian rhinos occur.
South Africa is just one country experiencing the consequences of the illegal rhino horn trade. Therefore, as South Africa still contains a relatively large population of both white and black rhinos, this country should be positively and constructively engaged in finding ways forward to stem the trade. Legalizing the trade is the most nonsensical way forward to promote conservation of rhino species worldwide.
It should be noted that South Africa has long been engaged in a “semi-legal” trade of rhino horns. South African authorities allowed a “national” trade of rhino horns that “somehow” managed to enter the international black market. South African authorities allowed “pseudo hunting” of rhinos – a process whereby “hunters” were recruited even from the ranks of local Thai *** workers, who were given permits by local authorities to export their derived horns. South African private rhino horn owners have “suffered” many thefts of their horn stockpiles supposedly secured in safes.
In short, South Africa has been feeding and encouraging the demand for rhino horns even though such trade is illegal. South Africa is therefore not a country in any way to be trusted with any sort of legal trade in rhino horns. South Africa is a country that is unfortunately engaged in a high level of corruption which will not suit any means of ensuring that the proposed “legal” rhino horns involved in trade will not come from poached animals.
In addition, many individuals in South Africa now want to legally trade rhino horns from their private stocks. This cannot happen under CITES regulations despite what our government tells them. It is all a mess and a muddle that any sane person should reject. It is aimed at short-term profit taking rather than a coherent plan to conserve rhinos. Private rhino owners have not, to date, shown to have been in any significant way involved in rhino “conservation” but rather, most engage in profit taking from a species that has become a convenient commodity.
As a last issue to consider, in the highly unlikely event that legal rhino horn sales were to be allowed by CITES on the international market, profits made should not benefit individuals or Government officials, but rather be ploughed into legitimate and registered rhino conservation programs.
Given South Africa’s complete failure to implement similar programs for elephants when CITES allowed them a “one-off” sale of ivory most recently in 2008, why should we then believe that a rhino horn sale will benefit rhinos? A legal trade in rhino horns will never conserve a single rhino, but will instead open up the market floodgates and consumers who have never used rhino horn before, will want to buy them. Encouraging demand by legalising trade of rhino horn will simply mean that no rhino will ever be safe in the wild again.
What is needed is international resolve, a commitment to stop what can only be described nowadays as state sponsored poaching, and a rejection by all who now have rhino horn stockpiles to see those as in any way “valuable”. Demand reduction campaigns in user countries need to be implemented on a national basis, shame campaigns need to go viral, as they did for the fur trade and a horn devaluation programme, through the pioneering Rhino Rescue Project needs to be implemented immediately, rendering the horn useless to consumers.
I am really hoping you will be able to help me get the word out there about the current poaching crisis we are facing in my beautiful country. Our rhino are running out of time and it won't be too long before they are all gone. In a desperate attempt to conserve them, our government are shipping them out to other countries they are not indigenous to. This is going to have a hugely negative impact on our ecosystem eventually. Please help me save our rhino!
It is astounding that there are people in South Africa, perhaps encouraged by government Ministers, private rhino owners and pseudo-economists, who think that the best way forward to defeat the rhino poachers operating freely in my country, is a fanciful scheme to trade rhino horns on the open market.
This proposal for legalizing trade is based on nothing more than a wish to cash in on eye-watering profits that a single kilo or pound of rhino horn can bring. Rhino horn these days, weight for weight, is worth more than gold and cocaine – but only on the backstreet illegal markets of Laos, Vietnam and China. Possession and sale of rhino horn products have actually been illegal in those countries since 1994.
The pro-trade movement is currently confined to South Africa, but there might be some support from Namibia and Zimbabwe to cash in on the potential windfall. The South African government wants to put this proposal to CITES (the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna) and has organized a concerted campaign to make this happen ever since 2012. But such trade requires a “partner” in Asia who will agree to allow commerce in a currently illegal product. This is not likely to happen given the overwhelming public mood in countries like Vietnam and China where people are beginning to wake up to the massive destruction of Africa’s wildlife that their demand for products has created. A positive CITES vote needs a 2/3 majority of member states to the Convention, and already South Africa will struggle to bring a handful of positive votes to the table.
Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Asian countries like China and Vietnam have been responsible for the huge demand in rhino horn products that has caused prices to rise through the roof. These countries and others in the region have always wanted rhino horn. The trade is centuries old. But the demand has never been as big as it is now – most likely fueled by a massive growth of disposable income among Vietnamese and Chinese people.
South Africa has only recently become the target of rhino horn poachers. South Africa must realize and acknowledge that before they became a haven for poachers, rhinos were already being eradicated in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia – in fact all across the African continent. And don’t forget Asia – Vietnam’s last one remaining indigenous rhino was poached a few years ago, and poaching has destroyed rhino populations in Indonesia, Malaysia, India and other countries where Asian rhinos occur.
South Africa is just one country experiencing the consequences of the illegal rhino horn trade. Therefore, as South Africa still contains a relatively large population of both white and black rhinos, this country should be positively and constructively engaged in finding ways forward to stem the trade. Legalizing the trade is the most nonsensical way forward to promote conservation of rhino species worldwide.
It should be noted that South Africa has long been engaged in a “semi-legal” trade of rhino horns. South African authorities allowed a “national” trade of rhino horns that “somehow” managed to enter the international black market. South African authorities allowed “pseudo hunting” of rhinos – a process whereby “hunters” were recruited even from the ranks of local Thai *** workers, who were given permits by local authorities to export their derived horns. South African private rhino horn owners have “suffered” many thefts of their horn stockpiles supposedly secured in safes.
In short, South Africa has been feeding and encouraging the demand for rhino horns even though such trade is illegal. South Africa is therefore not a country in any way to be trusted with any sort of legal trade in rhino horns. South Africa is a country that is unfortunately engaged in a high level of corruption which will not suit any means of ensuring that the proposed “legal” rhino horns involved in trade will not come from poached animals.
In addition, many individuals in South Africa now want to legally trade rhino horns from their private stocks. This cannot happen under CITES regulations despite what our government tells them. It is all a mess and a muddle that any sane person should reject. It is aimed at short-term profit taking rather than a coherent plan to conserve rhinos. Private rhino owners have not, to date, shown to have been in any significant way involved in rhino “conservation” but rather, most engage in profit taking from a species that has become a convenient commodity.
As a last issue to consider, in the highly unlikely event that legal rhino horn sales were to be allowed by CITES on the international market, profits made should not benefit individuals or Government officials, but rather be ploughed into legitimate and registered rhino conservation programs.
Given South Africa’s complete failure to implement similar programs for elephants when CITES allowed them a “one-off” sale of ivory most recently in 2008, why should we then believe that a rhino horn sale will benefit rhinos? A legal trade in rhino horns will never conserve a single rhino, but will instead open up the market floodgates and consumers who have never used rhino horn before, will want to buy them. Encouraging demand by legalising trade of rhino horn will simply mean that no rhino will ever be safe in the wild again.
What is needed is international resolve, a commitment to stop what can only be described nowadays as state sponsored poaching, and a rejection by all who now have rhino horn stockpiles to see those as in any way “valuable”. Demand reduction campaigns in user countries need to be implemented on a national basis, shame campaigns need to go viral, as they did for the fur trade and a horn devaluation programme, through the pioneering Rhino Rescue Project needs to be implemented immediately, rendering the horn useless to consumers.
I am really hoping you will be able to help me get the word out there about the current poaching crisis we are facing in my beautiful country. Our rhino are running out of time and it won't be too long before they are all gone. In a desperate attempt to conserve them, our government are shipping them out to other countries they are not indigenous to. This is going to have a hugely negative impact on our ecosystem eventually. Please help me save our rhino!
It is shameful that Nation of Ellen DeGeneres is being used as a platform to push for the trade of rhino horn to be legalised.
In the first place some rhino owners, who are breeding hundreds of rhino to harvest horn for trade, have already proved that they are not trustworthy enough to be involved with trade of rhino horn. The illegal market was opened up around 2005, by unscrupulous breeders who re stimulated demand for rhino horn in Vietnam by finding a way to get rhino horn onto the illegal market there. Rhino were bought at auction and delivered to farms where pseudo hunters were invited to 'hunt' them and sell their 'Rhino Horn Trophy' on the black market in Vietnam - this during an International Ban on Trade of Rhino Horn! Traffickers were attracted and from 9 rhinos poached in 2001 numbers of rhino killed suddenly climbed to 36 in 2006, 83 in 2008 - 122 in 2009 when alarm bells rang and the scam was exposed. A ban was then placed on domestic trade of rhino horn but the gate was closed with well connected Traffickers on the inside. Poaching stats have kept climbing year on year and there seems no urgency to stop it. Last year over 1,200 rhino were killed by poachers. The problem is that corrupt officials and insiders are involved which makes it extremely difficult to fight. Poachers are arrested but many are released and besides there is a never ending stream waiting to take their place. Because corruption is so deeply entrenched, and Wildlife Trafficking is so widespread poaching in Africa will never stop untill demand ends.
The market in Asia alone would be insatiable - and demand will return from the Middle East and grow worldwide if trade is legalised, prices fall and the stigma of buying rhino horn products is removed. Orders will be placed over the Internet from Chinese Traditional Medicine outlets in all big cities, the 'designer cocktail' market will take off - many new products will be produced and pushed - as cures for hangovers, impotence, cancer ... you name it! Additives will make it seem that rhino horn really works when it's actually consists mainly of keratin and is as effective as chewing your fingernails. So why push the use of rhino horn when it has no medicinal properties, will not make you as strong as a rhino and will not bestow good fortune on your life. It will simply lighten your wallet considerably, endanger the lives of brave Rangers and cause the extinction of magnificent wild rhinos across their range. Poaching will not stop if trade is legalised either. There are millions of millionaires who will order wild rhino horn - with the base intact - as it is considered far more potent and valuable. Why would they buy farmed or fake when traffickers can deliver a 'far superior product'? And how could tade in such a vast market ever be effectively policed? Will every house in Asia - or the world for that matter - be searched to see if anyone has purchased illegally poached rhino horn products? Why not simply call on the consumers, who have started to purchase rhino horn again, to stop because it is a myth that rhino horn has power to heal or bestow good fortune and strength. Stop buying it to end demand so that wild rhino can be safe in the wild where they belong. They are key species that have vital roles to play in maintaining balance in wild Eco systems. They should not all have to be moved onto farms for their safety! Encouraging demand by legalising trade of rhino horn will mean that no rhino will ever be safe in the wild again - without constant, very costly protection. Ending demand - through devaluation programmes pioneered by Rhino Rescue Project - working in conjunction with well targeted demand reduction campaigns - would help in the fight to stop poaching - being fought by brave Rangers night and day. Besides it would not be ethical to sell a product under false pretences.
In the first place some rhino owners, who are breeding hundreds of rhino to harvest horn for trade, have already proved that they are not trustworthy enough to be involved with trade of rhino horn. The illegal market was opened up around 2005, by unscrupulous breeders who re stimulated demand for rhino horn in Vietnam by finding a way to get rhino horn onto the illegal market there. Rhino were bought at auction and delivered to farms where pseudo hunters were invited to 'hunt' them and sell their 'Rhino Horn Trophy' on the black market in Vietnam - this during an International Ban on Trade of Rhino Horn! Traffickers were attracted and from 9 rhinos poached in 2001 numbers of rhino killed suddenly climbed to 36 in 2006, 83 in 2008 - 122 in 2009 when alarm bells rang and the scam was exposed. A ban was then placed on domestic trade of rhino horn but the gate was closed with well connected Traffickers on the inside. Poaching stats have kept climbing year on year and there seems no urgency to stop it. Last year over 1,200 rhino were killed by poachers. The problem is that corrupt officials and insiders are involved which makes it extremely difficult to fight. Poachers are arrested but many are released and besides there is a never ending stream waiting to take their place. Because corruption is so deeply entrenched, and Wildlife Trafficking is so widespread poaching in Africa will never stop untill demand ends.
The market in Asia alone would be insatiable - and demand will return from the Middle East and grow worldwide if trade is legalised, prices fall and the stigma of buying rhino horn products is removed. Orders will be placed over the Internet from Chinese Traditional Medicine outlets in all big cities, the 'designer cocktail' market will take off - many new products will be produced and pushed - as cures for hangovers, impotence, cancer ... you name it! Additives will make it seem that rhino horn really works when it's actually consists mainly of keratin and is as effective as chewing your fingernails. So why push the use of rhino horn when it has no medicinal properties, will not make you as strong as a rhino and will not bestow good fortune on your life. It will simply lighten your wallet considerably, endanger the lives of brave Rangers and cause the extinction of magnificent wild rhinos across their range. Poaching will not stop if trade is legalised either. There are millions of millionaires who will order wild rhino horn - with the base intact - as it is considered far more potent and valuable. Why would they buy farmed or fake when traffickers can deliver a 'far superior product'? And how could tade in such a vast market ever be effectively policed? Will every house in Asia - or the world for that matter - be searched to see if anyone has purchased illegally poached rhino horn products? Why not simply call on the consumers, who have started to purchase rhino horn again, to stop because it is a myth that rhino horn has power to heal or bestow good fortune and strength. Stop buying it to end demand so that wild rhino can be safe in the wild where they belong. They are key species that have vital roles to play in maintaining balance in wild Eco systems. They should not all have to be moved onto farms for their safety! Encouraging demand by legalising trade of rhino horn will mean that no rhino will ever be safe in the wild again - without constant, very costly protection. Ending demand - through devaluation programmes pioneered by Rhino Rescue Project - working in conjunction with well targeted demand reduction campaigns - would help in the fight to stop poaching - being fought by brave Rangers night and day. Besides it would not be ethical to sell a product under false pretences.
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"our Rhinos are LOSING THIS WAR" Quite an amazing statement Ms Westerweel ! They are not losing the war - mankind is. Mankind has created the market. Mankind is conducting the slaughter. Mankind is financing the market. Mankind is trading the body parts. Mankind is the consumer. Rhino are the innocent victims of mankinds war! It is mankind fighting to keep supply of a barbaric market and dedicated people desperately trying to stop it! Or is that lost? The Chinese established sickening Tiger farms to supplement the illegal slaughter of wild Tiger for the manufacture of Tiger bone wine. Tiger farms have not benefited conservation and have not stopped the slaughter of wild Tiger. The exact same can be said of the equally barbaric Bear bile farms. Closing trade on Whale products has ensured we have whales and they have bounced back because of this.... China saved its own Giant Panda from almost certain extinction by banning and crushing trade, saving habitat, protection and strict enforcement. It has been the picture card of conservation for many years. They shut down trade, not stimulated it! [which is kind of ironic when it is they who are responsible for so much slaughter and destruction]. Here we are desperately trying to end demand and there are people out there trying to stimulate it and keep it ongoing and make a buck out of it! The insanity escapes me! An industry filled with corruption on a monumental scale and there are people out there who peer from under their mushroom and believe that their pro trade solution can operate within an industry dominated by international organized crime and corruption. I mean - come on smell the roses! I find it quite amazing the outlook some people have on this world. Mankind has hacked away at the wild world - carving up the lands into cities and towns - housing, industrial. recreational, roads, highways, agricultural, mining etc. Slaughtering and profiteering the entire way. Destroying the environs that these and many other great animals have existed in for thousands of years. Pushing them into ever decreasing pockets. Remnants of their original ranges. Pushed into ranges that erase migratory routes and often lands of poor quality to sustain wildlife. Populations fragmented without genetic diversity needed to keep species healthy. Mankind rapes and makes billions of dollars from the lands and when its time to give back, to take a stand and say - no more. We will, but its going to come at a cost. It must be economically sustainable for us to do it. Or you must financially contribute towards your life and my pocket. I am sickened to the core by the insanity and the pro trade movement. Take and take and take, one game after another, one agenda after another!!! I am no arm chair critic, I am in this fight to save Rhino every way I know how and doing all I can to stop trade is very much a part of it. Stop trade and we give rhino a chance. Stop trade and we give Elephant a chance.................. End trade, end the slaughter! While there is demand, death soon follows. Tackle corruption head on, make politicians accountable, demand nations harbouring consumers and financing the slaughter to contribute their end. Consider / press for sanctions against these nations who play the pivotal role in the global wildlife slaughter, instead of awarding them new business contracts. Consider departure taxes for international visitors that can aid funding conservation. Consider taxes to mining and property developing to aid in funding conservation. Pressure your Governments [all nations] tell China and Vietnam that the wildlife body part trade will not be tolerated. And if you cant get politicians to make a stand then do it by business. But stop the games. I have heard every excuse in the world out there. I have seen the insanity of political correctness, double standards, ego, arrogance, profiteering and blind stupidity at work. Enough is enough. Play hard ball... No more games! End trade........
Pro-trade are scratching around like chickens in a coop desperate for ways to convince the general public and policy makers that legalisation is necessary and beneficial to rhino and both counts are utter lies based on little more than generalised assumptions and a methodology from decades ago.
Both black and white rhino populations have increased under the ban (white rhino significantly, black modestly) but pro-trade advocates won't tell you for 16 consecutive years rhino populations increased year on year. They won't tell you populations increased by 189% between 1993 and 2009. The won't tell you that rhino poaching incidents remained negligible during this time either (poaching percentages 1990=0.19%, 1995=0.17%, 1997=0.06%, 2004=0.09%, 2005=0,01%, 2008=0.04%). They won't tell you that since 2008, conviction rates have dropped significantly. The DEA boast a 60% conviction rate of 1400 arrests but only 10% actually went to court, so only 140 were actually convicted between 2010 and Jan 2015.
They cant tell you how much they will sell the horns for and to who because they do not know. They have underestimated the likelihood of a market explosion if trade were legalised. They have underestimated the poaching syndicates and their actions (by the way Albina, where will the syndicates turn their attention to or do you think they will just retire on their profits and just go away?).
Pro-trade is undermining genuine conservation efforts both in Africa and Asia. Pro-trade is hampering the efforts of orgainsations working in Asia to curb demand by sending false messages to Asia that it is "ok" to use rhino horn. Tell us please Albina, why do you want to sell rhino horn to the very same scum who are slaughtering rhinos? Why do you want to collude with the people who are decimating rhino populations and driving the species to extinction? It ain't for the love of the rhino is it? If you really want to keep up with the voices of the world then try listening to the ones who are NOT advocating lies, dishonesty and deceit and forget selling horn and starts saving rhinos!
Both black and white rhino populations have increased under the ban (white rhino significantly, black modestly) but pro-trade advocates won't tell you for 16 consecutive years rhino populations increased year on year. They won't tell you populations increased by 189% between 1993 and 2009. The won't tell you that rhino poaching incidents remained negligible during this time either (poaching percentages 1990=0.19%, 1995=0.17%, 1997=0.06%, 2004=0.09%, 2005=0,01%, 2008=0.04%). They won't tell you that since 2008, conviction rates have dropped significantly. The DEA boast a 60% conviction rate of 1400 arrests but only 10% actually went to court, so only 140 were actually convicted between 2010 and Jan 2015.
They cant tell you how much they will sell the horns for and to who because they do not know. They have underestimated the likelihood of a market explosion if trade were legalised. They have underestimated the poaching syndicates and their actions (by the way Albina, where will the syndicates turn their attention to or do you think they will just retire on their profits and just go away?).
Pro-trade is undermining genuine conservation efforts both in Africa and Asia. Pro-trade is hampering the efforts of orgainsations working in Asia to curb demand by sending false messages to Asia that it is "ok" to use rhino horn. Tell us please Albina, why do you want to sell rhino horn to the very same scum who are slaughtering rhinos? Why do you want to collude with the people who are decimating rhino populations and driving the species to extinction? It ain't for the love of the rhino is it? If you really want to keep up with the voices of the world then try listening to the ones who are NOT advocating lies, dishonesty and deceit and forget selling horn and starts saving rhinos!
You should be ashamed of yourself, posting a tear-jerking video of your poor poached rhino, when your husband and by association, yourself are complicit in the rhino poaching crisis we have on our hands today. Deny all you want, but John Hume has blood on his hands and is directly responsible for breaking the ban and re-stimulating demand for trade. It is sickening that you can stoop to using rhino to try and make money. You are breeding thousands of rhino in the hope that CITES will lift the ban on trade, so that you can profit from it. God help every single rhino on your property, because they need protection from the likes of you. You should hang your head in shame.
To bread Rhinos for their horns is not the correct way to go Albina's husband is making money out of a critically endangered specie, they are not protecting them. THE ONLY THING THAT WILL HAPPEND IS THAT THE DEMAND WILL RISE FOR RHINO HORN. People need to be educated that Rhino horn is not medicine.
DEMAND REDUCTION vs. GREED & CORRUPTION MONSTER :
I should hope by now that most of us are becoming acutely aware of who's trying their level best to stop poaching - by trying to SAVE our Rhinos! - and who's doing their utmost to ACTIVELY OPPOSE all of our Anti-Trade attempts to do so, through Demand-Reduction initiatives & campaigns - to STOP the demand - and therefore the poaching!
Pro-traders are serving to OPPOSE DEMAND-REDUCTION & instead have opted, for profiteering reasons - to FEED the dragon - that DESTROYS OUR WORLD'S NATURE..!
Pro-trade is nothing but a theory. There is absolutely no way of knowing whether it would achieve less poaching, or the negative consequences of horn trade. Trade could further endanger the lives of our people, and put the country at a heightened security risk - as though this isn't already happening with crime! We keep upping our security measures and those costs keep rising - but has the crime rate reduced, as a result of our expenses?!! Not one tiny iota! Crime continues unabated. Criminals walk in, and walk out, every single day - as they do with poaching our Rhinos!
The thing with trade, is that with a projected heightened, security situation - with choppers routinely sortieing over multiple properties (as with our crime situation), what they're proposing to create (intentional or not) is a thoroughly stressful, though diluted war-zone situation across the country. I really don't think trade in horn bodes well for the country, private owners, game parks, or the Rhino in the wild - not to mention the rampant demand that trade creates!
This is seeking to destroy otherwise successful local, and worldwide - demand reduction campaigns, and initiatives - in order to make a killing ('scuse the pun) selling Rhino horn and so-called parts; the aiding, and abetting of poachers, criminals, syndicates, unscrupulous game farmers, hunters, and officials (unbridled greed and corruption). As we're seeing with elephant ivory - once that demand, and poaching reaches such levels - it becomes extremely difficult, and costly to stop, and almost impossible to reverse once established! For the sake of our Rhinos, elephants, pangolins, lions - and everything else - we have our moral duty to support demand reduction campaigns to the hilt; getting the word out there - that trading in Elephant tusks, Rhino horn, and animal 'parts' does nothing much - but EXPAND markets which DESTROYS wildlife, which INTENSIFIES poaching, which RAISES costs of our tourism, and our conservation. Ultimately - it puts our wildlife, our people, our livelihoods, our tourism, and our economy at risk!
We cannot afford the same fatal mistake with the Rhino as we did the Elephant (by selling ivory stocks), simply because they have a small single horn (compared to elephant), therefore the demand and losses would likely be severe, and plough through the animals more quickly. One thing's for sure - if trade is refused by Cites, we're destined to resolve this the old fashioned way - through anti-poaching, law enforcement, and demand reduction (Back to square one, but with less Rhinos in the kitty). This is why anti-traders are "gatvol" of pro-traders opposing all of our efforts to urgently and drastically - reduce the demand, for Elephant ivory, and Rhino horn!
I should hope by now that most of us are becoming acutely aware of who's trying their level best to stop poaching - by trying to SAVE our Rhinos! - and who's doing their utmost to ACTIVELY OPPOSE all of our Anti-Trade attempts to do so, through Demand-Reduction initiatives & campaigns - to STOP the demand - and therefore the poaching!
Pro-traders are serving to OPPOSE DEMAND-REDUCTION & instead have opted, for profiteering reasons - to FEED the dragon - that DESTROYS OUR WORLD'S NATURE..!
Pro-trade is nothing but a theory. There is absolutely no way of knowing whether it would achieve less poaching, or the negative consequences of horn trade. Trade could further endanger the lives of our people, and put the country at a heightened security risk - as though this isn't already happening with crime! We keep upping our security measures and those costs keep rising - but has the crime rate reduced, as a result of our expenses?!! Not one tiny iota! Crime continues unabated. Criminals walk in, and walk out, every single day - as they do with poaching our Rhinos!
The thing with trade, is that with a projected heightened, security situation - with choppers routinely sortieing over multiple properties (as with our crime situation), what they're proposing to create (intentional or not) is a thoroughly stressful, though diluted war-zone situation across the country. I really don't think trade in horn bodes well for the country, private owners, game parks, or the Rhino in the wild - not to mention the rampant demand that trade creates!
This is seeking to destroy otherwise successful local, and worldwide - demand reduction campaigns, and initiatives - in order to make a killing ('scuse the pun) selling Rhino horn and so-called parts; the aiding, and abetting of poachers, criminals, syndicates, unscrupulous game farmers, hunters, and officials (unbridled greed and corruption). As we're seeing with elephant ivory - once that demand, and poaching reaches such levels - it becomes extremely difficult, and costly to stop, and almost impossible to reverse once established! For the sake of our Rhinos, elephants, pangolins, lions - and everything else - we have our moral duty to support demand reduction campaigns to the hilt; getting the word out there - that trading in Elephant tusks, Rhino horn, and animal 'parts' does nothing much - but EXPAND markets which DESTROYS wildlife, which INTENSIFIES poaching, which RAISES costs of our tourism, and our conservation. Ultimately - it puts our wildlife, our people, our livelihoods, our tourism, and our economy at risk!
We cannot afford the same fatal mistake with the Rhino as we did the Elephant (by selling ivory stocks), simply because they have a small single horn (compared to elephant), therefore the demand and losses would likely be severe, and plough through the animals more quickly. One thing's for sure - if trade is refused by Cites, we're destined to resolve this the old fashioned way - through anti-poaching, law enforcement, and demand reduction (Back to square one, but with less Rhinos in the kitty). This is why anti-traders are "gatvol" of pro-traders opposing all of our efforts to urgently and drastically - reduce the demand, for Elephant ivory, and Rhino horn!
Me thinks Albina Hume is only crying because the source of her revenue has gone - the horn, she is not crying for the rhino, just the horn. John Hume, by his own words, admitted to selling rhino horn (when there was a legal, internal trade within South Africa). And he knew the person he was selling to was going to be exporting that horn ILLEGALLY. Does that make him an accessory to a crime?
Here is the thing with John Hume, he is a breeder who wants rhino horn trade legalised so that he can make money. If the pro traders think that we will all roll over and let this happen they are in for a huge fight. The end user will always want the real thing from the wild, the only way to win the war is by cutting demand, more arms and better support for all the agencies involved in animal wildlife trafficking. We can win the fight but it won't be easy but hell we can give it our all.
John and Albina Hume are no conservationists, they are investors and only in it for the money. They have turned the iconic rhino species into ordinary cattle to trade with, to have them trophy-hunted when they are of no use anymore. Because of their crazy, obsessive desire for money they are risking the lives of every rhino on this planet.
Ellen, if you do just a little research on the Humes you will avoid making a huge mistake and the backlash that would no doubt follow for helping these pro-trade monsters. They are the single biggest hurdle to saving these animals. They advocate praying on the ignorance in Asia and capitalizing on it at the expense of the rhino. Effectively they are saying to the Asian people we think so much o you people that rather than educate you and prove rhino horn is ineffective medicine, we will instead take advantage of your ignorance, supply it to you at the animals expense, and capitalize on it, while at the same time increasing demand for it so we can grow our herd of deformed dehorned domesticated rhino-cattle. Please don't back this blatent attempt to justify their obviously bad intentioned position on rhino trade. Right is right and wrong is wrong, and for those of us that donate money to the cause rather than profit from it, it's easy to see how wrong this is on so many levels.
Turning one of the worlds last great animals, our link to the prehistoric age into a farm animal. This is our answer! Oh boy are we deliberately trying to fail it! China and Vietnam are home to some of the highest economic growth in the world. These 2 nations have seen the greatest growth in global society’s middle and upper classes. China had 2,378,000 millionaire households in 2013, a rise of 82% from the previous year. Last year alone China created 40 000 more Millionaires. In 2013 Vietnam witnessed its first "publicly recognizable" home grown Billionaire. There are believed to be more, who shy from the spot light. Global financial growth CNBC March 2014- "Asia and emerging markets will drive much of the growth. The report said the country expected to see the fastest growth in millionaires is Vietnam, with a projected growth rate for $30 million-plus residents of 166 percent." The Middle Upper classes of these nations are driving the global demand for Rhino, Elephant, Tiger and Bear Body parts [to mention a few] and these nations are seeing explosive growth in people who can afford whatever they want! Instead of trying to seriously decrease and stop the trade, we have a bunch of people wanting to supplement it in the name of conservation. How in the hell is the world going to stop the slaughter if it stimulates trade??? I am thinking that the pro trade crowd either haven’t done their research or they have and they have seen the demand, the dollars on the table and immense profits that can be made. The few Rhino that exist on farms as farm animals bouncing in and out of tranquilizers may exist as the farm animal they become. The truly wild population of the national parks of Africa and Asia will be decimated!!! So the profiteers will have Rhino, but the public and nature will not!
Immense corruption across the entire trade route from local public servants, to politicians, to transport workers, customs people and even police and park workers, from Africa through to the end market in Asia. Organised crime syndicates, those that specialize in the drug and illegals firearm markets, human trafficking and prostitution are now entrenched in the Rhino and Elephant body part trades. AND people think that by stimulating trade, that they are going to be able to operate a legal market within this? I mean come on, pull the other one, it plays jingle bells... I read quotes from pro traders saying they will flood the market with legal horn. Define Flood??? We are talking how many millions of animals contributing horn? There are approx fewer than 28 000 Rhino of all species – globally! That is it…….. And the list of consumers is massive [hence demand]. Add to this the ever increasing wealth within nations consuming Rhino horn. Stimulating trade with a legal market says its ok to consume horn and it is legal to do so. How many more consumers enter the market each year and not just in China and Vietnam??? Demand exceeds supply that is a no brainer! You have created an out of control monster that will erase the last wild Rhino in every continent on earth, endanger those “farmed” and the lives of people who are perceived a threat to the industry
As an aside I never see any mention of Tranquilizers, which in the wrong hands or mis-judged are not only fatal to Rhino, they very obviously kill man. M99 is 1000 to 80 000 times more potent than morphine! Every situation that requires tranquilizer is a risk. I have been on KZN Rhino captures I know the risks and danger... I remember a number of years ago, there was a push to market "Green Hunts" where animals, in particular Rhino were darted by high paying "green hunters" in the name of conservation. Then they found that some animals were being rotated back through the system and darted several times, not for conservation, but for a dollar. Veterinarian’s raised the alarm of the risks of tranquilizing animals for fun. I remember back in 2012 a Rhino named Spencer was tranquilized in an anti poaching demo in front of journalists and camera crews by industry experts. He died! The risks are there each and every time sedation is undertaken. As I gather Rhino have not evolved into self shedding their horn and I know they don't stand there for you to saw them off, they will have to be tranquilized. AND now we are talking on a mass scale...
I am sick to death of this Pro trade agenda and the divisiveness it instils. As if we are not all spread thin enough. And the damn games? Are a waste of resource’s and time. Both so highly valued and in demand. Why we are not unified in reducing and hopefully ending demand is totally beyond comprehension…
Immense corruption across the entire trade route from local public servants, to politicians, to transport workers, customs people and even police and park workers, from Africa through to the end market in Asia. Organised crime syndicates, those that specialize in the drug and illegals firearm markets, human trafficking and prostitution are now entrenched in the Rhino and Elephant body part trades. AND people think that by stimulating trade, that they are going to be able to operate a legal market within this? I mean come on, pull the other one, it plays jingle bells... I read quotes from pro traders saying they will flood the market with legal horn. Define Flood??? We are talking how many millions of animals contributing horn? There are approx fewer than 28 000 Rhino of all species – globally! That is it…….. And the list of consumers is massive [hence demand]. Add to this the ever increasing wealth within nations consuming Rhino horn. Stimulating trade with a legal market says its ok to consume horn and it is legal to do so. How many more consumers enter the market each year and not just in China and Vietnam??? Demand exceeds supply that is a no brainer! You have created an out of control monster that will erase the last wild Rhino in every continent on earth, endanger those “farmed” and the lives of people who are perceived a threat to the industry
As an aside I never see any mention of Tranquilizers, which in the wrong hands or mis-judged are not only fatal to Rhino, they very obviously kill man. M99 is 1000 to 80 000 times more potent than morphine! Every situation that requires tranquilizer is a risk. I have been on KZN Rhino captures I know the risks and danger... I remember a number of years ago, there was a push to market "Green Hunts" where animals, in particular Rhino were darted by high paying "green hunters" in the name of conservation. Then they found that some animals were being rotated back through the system and darted several times, not for conservation, but for a dollar. Veterinarian’s raised the alarm of the risks of tranquilizing animals for fun. I remember back in 2012 a Rhino named Spencer was tranquilized in an anti poaching demo in front of journalists and camera crews by industry experts. He died! The risks are there each and every time sedation is undertaken. As I gather Rhino have not evolved into self shedding their horn and I know they don't stand there for you to saw them off, they will have to be tranquilized. AND now we are talking on a mass scale...
I am sick to death of this Pro trade agenda and the divisiveness it instils. As if we are not all spread thin enough. And the damn games? Are a waste of resource’s and time. Both so highly valued and in demand. Why we are not unified in reducing and hopefully ending demand is totally beyond comprehension…
we will never win this war to save the rhino...government needs to stop talking...because talking does nothing to save the rhino...we will never win the fight on the ground because there is no army fighting the war only people that put there life on the line everyday and get no help or funding from the government...give them what they want and have a rhino thats alive...but no....we let them take what they want and give us a dead rhino