Around the World- Save the Rhino

While in Africa, we watched a pack of wild dogs chase and kill two scared antelope. We watched hyenas bully leopards (more than once) over the impala they each wanted to eat. We even saw a giraffe being eaten by a pride of lions nine strong. But that’s nature. That’s ok. That’s the way the world is supposed to work.

Then we saw this.

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This is what remains of a poached Rhino. It was killed just a couple of weeks prior to our visit. THIS hurts my heart. THIS makes me sad.

Do you have any idea how they cut off a rhino horn? A chainsaw. Think about that for a minute. Get that visual in your head. This magnificent creature brutally attacked with a chainsaw and left to bleed to death. Hopefully it will bleed out and die before the predators come. Hopefully.

This is not what is supposed to happen. This is money hungry man catering to the small egos of other man. How can anyone think that something made of keratin can improve your sexual performance? Seriously? If that’s how you feel, if that’s what you need to soothe that tiny ego of yours, then why not just gnaw on your own toenails? They’re made of the same thing as that rhino horn.

There is a war on poachers. The government of South Africa declared war. The instructions, the law, tell people to shoot to kill on sight of a poacher (but even with several poachers killed this year alone, they are still going strong). There are anti-poaching units that go around the national parks. They simply can’t keep up with the poachers. As long as there is a market for the horn, where the price for rhino horn is far greater than gold, there will be someone willing to risk their life for it.

At the rate of poaching we have now, your children will likely never see a rhino in the wild. Their children won’t even see one in captivity.

Be outraged.

Go learn more, go give some time and some money. There are some disturbing images on the site. There are some disturbing statistics there too. This whole thing is disturbing.

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