South Africa has seen an uncontrollable wave of poaching of rhinos for their horns, believed to be the panacea for all manner of ailments (without a shred scientific proof) in the Far East yet, staggeringly, in some quarters the argument is still made that a legal trade in horn is the answer to this appalling situation
For a successful crime cake, you’ll need a victim in demand, easy to move to market and one that fetches a high price. It’s also very handy if the people who decide on priorities are constrained or unaware or, best of all, just not bothered about this particular victim – often the case with wildlife and forest crime
The rhino is under siege again. Poaching and the smuggling of their horns has now been acknowledged as out of control. This is evidenced by the flurry of information from the field – particularly from South Africa (SA). Emails and text messages come in pretty much on a weekly basis