South Africa has lost control of rhino poaching. It is a sad fact reflected in the number of rhinos killed last year. One thousand and four rhinos died needlessly for their keratin horns. Sometimes the rhinos suffer terribly as their horns are ripped off while they are still alive and dying. 2013 was the worst year yet on record. South Africa is home to more rhinos than any other country in the world, so it is a magnate for rhino poachers. All this because ignorant Asians continue to demand powdered horn as a medicine and aphrodisiac. Science shows that keratin has no curative properties. Horn consumers might as well be chewing their fingernails. Most of the poachers come in from Mozambique according to TRAFFIC, the organization responsible for monitoring the illegal trade in endangered animal parts. It says law enforcement and penalties must be stiffened considerably if there to be any hope of stopping the immoral decimation of a species that has existed on Earth for hundreds of thousands of years. Deaths from poaching are nearly outnumbering births, a condition mathematically leading to extinction. Trophy hunting for huge fees must also stop since it is a source of horn entering the black market. Life imprisonment should be an option for major poaching criminals.
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| courtesy: US Person, Masai Mara Rhino |
Wealthy countries like the United States with the means to infiltrate and prosecute international traffic rings have to lead the way. The Unites States is helping, but it can do much more. If as much effort was put into suppressing the illegal wildlife trade as it puts into anti-drug operations, there would be a marked drop in the number of animals killed annually. To its credit, the US government seems to be stepping up in small ways. Secretary of State John Kerry recently announced a $1 million bounty leading to the arrest of Vixay Keosavang who is the head of a vast trafficking syndicate. Keosavang is based in Laos where his "Xaysavang" organization enables the killing of elephants and rhinoceros for their valued body parts and smuggles them from Africa through Laos to Vietnam and China. His network has been operating for more than a decade, but was revealed in 2008 when five men were arrested in a sting operation for trying to sell three rhino horns for thousands. Later, Kenyan authorities seized 260 kgs of ivory and 18kgs of horn at Nairobi airport. The shipments were registered to Xaysavang in Laos. A key accomplice, who was imprisoned for only ten years, provided intelligence about the syndicate which is said to have prompted Washington to offer the reward. The realization that wildlife criminals are involved in official corruption, financing terror and armed conflict, as well as robbing nations of their irreplaceable natural heritage is slowingly starting to dawn on officials. Keosavang is said to be "untouchable" in Laos. Nevertheless, Freeland, a wildlife NGO, has constructed a detailed case against him. One 2009 contract alone was worth $860,000 in turtles (20,000), snakes (70,000) and monitor lizards (20,000). Keosavang seems a worthy target of clandestine activity.
US Person hopes it is not to late for his innocent victims.