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Out of Africa: Czechs seize 24 rhino horns, charge 16 traffickers (Reuters) - Czech authorities seized 24 white rhino horns and charged 16 suspected members of an international ring smuggling the prized material to Asia, the customs department said on Tuesday. The horns, believed in parts of Asia to heal illnesses including cancer and sold as an aphrodisiac, were worth $5 million, customs and police officials said. Demand has risen especially in Vietnam in the past years, leading to a rise in poaching of rhinos and smuggling of horns from Africa. Police and customs said the ring employed proxy hunters who used a practice under which hunters can get permission to legally shoot one rhino in South Africa and take the horn as a trophy, strictly for non-commercial purposes. "They were paid by the gang to hunt rhinos in the South African Republic bring the rhino horns as hunters' trophies to the EU," customs officer Ales Hruby said. The Czech authorities did not give the nationalities of the suspects. The suspects face up to 8-years in prison if found guilty. Cheers, ~ Alan Life Member NRA Life Member SCI email: editorusa(@)africanxmag(dot)com African Expedition Magazine: http://www.africanxmag.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.p.bunn Twitter: http://twitter.com/EditorUSA Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. ~Keller To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. ~ Murrow | ||
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This one is going to give the anti's some ammo ------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | |||
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Recorded number of rhino poached in South Africa USFWS graph showing number of Rhinos poached in South Africa, starting in 2000 through October 14, 2014. Cheers, ~ Alan Life Member NRA Life Member SCI email: editorusa(@)africanxmag(dot)com African Expedition Magazine: http://www.africanxmag.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.p.bunn Twitter: http://twitter.com/EditorUSA Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. ~Keller To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. ~ Murrow | |||
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Thank you SCI, for protecting these bastards for so long! | |||
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What does SCI have to do with this? | |||
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No SCI connection whatsoever. This is a case of straw man, proxy hunters illegally selling their legally hunted, exported and imported rhino horns on the secondary black market. I hope they fine them to high heaven, and lock them up until kingdom come. Mike Wilderness is my cathedral, and hunting is my prayer. | |||
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I am afraid you're right, Bakes. But these scum are not hunters. They are criminals, plain and simple. Mike Wilderness is my cathedral, and hunting is my prayer. | |||
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Until the ranching industry and governments start to sell sustainable rhino horn to the Asians I think the rhino's are doomed. Mac | |||
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Out of Africa was involved in this up to their necks. This was brought out right in the open. But, they had their lawyer defending them. It just so happens that their lawyer was very highly placed in SCI. They continued to kill and sell rhino horns for bloody years. Some are imprisoned in South Africa - and the prosecution seems to loose one docket or another on a continuous basis, so I really doubt that anything is going to come out of that. Their partners in the US are operating under other name now. And they say crime does not pay?? | |||
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What about half price Viagra?  ------------------------------ A mate of mine has just told me he's shagging his girlfriend and her twin. I said "How can you tell them apart?" He said "Her brother's got a moustache!" | |||
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They were most likely Vietnamese as there is big minority in Czech Republic, which is left over from Comunist era So it doesn't surprise me. They figured nobody would look for rhino horn in that particular route. Best punishment would be to send them back to where they came from. Prison in Czech Republic is like a retreat nowadays, so Fedex to Vietnam ... Far cry from old days, when Commies had chain gangs, literally " Until the day breaks and the nights shadows flee away " Big ivory for my pillow and 2.5% of Neanderthal DNA flowing thru my veins. When I'm ready to go, pack a bag of gunpowder up my ass and strike a fire to my pecker, until I squeal like a boar. Yours truly , Milan The Boarkiller - World according to Milan PS I have big boar on my floor...but it ain't dead, just scared to move... Man should be happy and in good humor until the day he dies... Only fools hope to live forever “ Hávamál” | |||
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Way too logical. Mac | |||
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Alan, Has Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris or Safari Club International been implicated in this particular case? | |||
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Yes, to Out of Africa, allegedly. No, to SCI, allegedly. Here are further details on this breaking story. ~ Alan Global rhino syndicate bust http://www.timeslive.co.za/the...rhino-syndicate-bust Sixteen people in the Czech Republic have been charged with being part of an international trafficking syndicate that allegedly moved rhino horn from South Africa to Vietnam. Stepánka Zenklová, spokesman for the Prague municipal attorney's office, said the 16 were the alleged masterminds of the operation and Czech hunters whose travel expenses to South Africa were paid by their recruiters. According to an investigation dossier seen by The Times, Czech police and customs officers have allegedly linked the syndicate to controversial South African hunting outfitter Dawie Groenewald and the network of wildlife operators dubbed the "Musina mafia". Investigators believe that the Czechs shot rhino on Groenewald's Limpopo farm, Prachtig, and signed the rights to the "trophies" over to the syndicate. Czech investigators believe massive corruption in South Africa's conservation bureaucracy allowed the scam to continue through most of 2011. "These were not rhino trophy-hunting trips for the sport. They were cold-blooded executions," an investigator told The Times. "They wanted to sell the horns on the black market in Vietnam, where their price far exceeds the costs of rhino hunting." Authorities say the horns were shipped as unmounted trophies with Groenewald's "Out of Africa" tags attached. Stamped with the South African Cites export approval mark, the horns were packed into wooden shipping crates. Czech officials became suspicious when a set of freight forwarding papers for a shipment of rhino horn indicated Vietnam as the final destination. Further alarms were set off by the low insurance valuation of $50 a horn. Groenewald has not been charged. Asked for comment yesterday, he said: "I don't know anything about it. I don't know about horn seizures or arrests. "How should I know they are trafficking horns?" Groenewald and several others were arrested in September 2010 after a police raid led to the discovery of more than 20 rhino carcasses buried on his farm. Groenewald, his wife, Sariette, two wildlife vets, a vet's wife, four hunters and a worker were charged with 1872 counts, including the illegal killing of rhino, money-laundering, fraud, trading in rhino horn and illegal possession of weapons. The Pretoria High Court in July postponed their trial until August 4 next year. In October, Groenewald, and his brother, Janneman, were indicted by the US Department of Justice on charges of trafficking rhino horn, international money-laundering, and conspiring to sell rhino hunts fraudulently to American hunters. The two men were also charged under the Lacey Act, the oldest and foremost environmental protection statute in the US. Cheers, ~ Alan Life Member NRA Life Member SCI email: editorusa(@)africanxmag(dot)com African Expedition Magazine: http://www.africanxmag.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.p.bunn Twitter: http://twitter.com/EditorUSA Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. ~Keller To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. ~ Murrow | |||
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And Kevin Anderson was Out of Africa's lawyer  Just join the dots and you will it all. | |||
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People will do anything for money, period. ~Ann   | |||
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You hit the nail on the head Ann! | |||
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Saeed: At the risk of being called an SCI cheerleader and apologist, I cannot see how the club can be a co-conspirator in the criminal acts that Dawie Groenewald and his company are charged with. It is well known on this forum that Kevin Anderson was Out of Africa’s attorney while a member of SCI’s board of directors and executive committee, and possibly even when he served as SCI’s president. He even may have represented his client before the SCI Ethics Committee, as you have suggested in the past. (We’ll never know. That panel’s proceedings are only made public when it expels or censures members.) Anderson obviously should have recused himself to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. However, the real or perceived actions of one person do not make an entire organization guilty of anything. To claim that SCI’s 50,000 members somehow are involved in an international poaching ring is as slanderous and unfair as blaming the entire club for the illegal or unethical acts of a comparatively few outlaws who happen to be members or officers. Hundreds of men and women have served as SCI officers over the past four decades, and hundreds of thousands of others have held memberships (including you, Saeed, and me), To paint everyone with your broad brush is insulting, unwarranted, and inexcusable. Bill Quimby | |||
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Bill, I am an SCI Life Member, and have been for at least 30 years. I am certainly not involved in what SCI gets up to, nor are any of their members. SCI management has always been so removed from its membership, they never listen. SCI management was well aware of the crimes being committed by Groenewald, but they chose to keep quiet about it. In fact, I would hazard a guess that BECAUSE of Kevin Anderson's involvement with them, SCI management actually helped make this all legitimate by cosying up to them. SCI needs a complete over haul to be in a position its members actually start trusting them to do anything remotely useful. A shame really, as they can do an awful lot of good if they forget all their silly back slapping self congratulations and start doing something useful for a change. | |||
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Saeed: I also have been an SCI life member for at least 30 years, but I have no idea what you mean by saying Anderson’s involvement with Out of Africa resulted in “making all this legitimate.” Rhino poaching is never legitimate. SCI overhauls itself every year when the more than 200 representatives of the club’s chapters elect new international officers. If members are not happy with or are not informed of what the club’s leaders are doing, they need to change their local representatives. If they do not belong to a chapter and want their voices heard, they need to join one. Incidentally, there actually are two clubs: SCI and the SCI Foundation. It is SCI that represents hunters, works to protect hunting, conducts conventions, publishes publications, and presents what you often call “silly awards.” You can ignore the SCI Foundation’s contributions to wildlife conservation, education and human services, but it does not change the fact that it is deeply involved in these useful things Damn. Now I am sounding like a cheerleader. Please know that I’m not blindly defending the club. It has warts. My point is, it is wrong to condemn an entire organization for the actions of a few, Bill Quimby | |||
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Bill, SCI Foundation is the only part of it that is doing anything meaningful. Do you really think Out of Africa would have been able to carry business as usual if they did not have Kevin's undying support for so many years? How much influence has been able to exert so no one looks at the with a critical eye as those outside SCI have done? How many past SCI presidents, and high officers, have been involved in questionable hunting? How many of SCI's PH Of The Year have turned out to be outright criminal? How come SCI seems to have a knack of picking them?? SCI is just plain and simple full of corruption. Most of what we see is them giving an extraordinary amount of time and effort for glorifying how big an animal is. They have turned hunting in a competitive sport, with all the cheating, corruption and criminal activities that goes with this. | |||
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Saeed: Here are my best efforts at answering your questions: Q. “Do you really think Out of Africa would have been able to carry business as usual if they did not have Kevin's undying support for so many years? How much influence has been able to exert so no one looks at the with a critical eye as those outside SCI have done?” A. Who knows? Mr. Anderson’s reign is over. Out of Africa and its owners are finally exposed. Let’s move on. Q. “How many past SCI presidents, and high officers, have been involved in questionable hunting?” A. I know of just four: 1) a past president who was found innocent on charges of illegally hunting moose from helicopters in Siberia. 2) two past presidents who were criticized in international media for hunting elephant after being granted permission to hunt in a closed area in Mozambique. 3) The club’s founder who was rumored to have tested the limits of game laws, but was never charged with any violation even though every wildlife cop in the world would have loved to have cited him. There also is a past president who is serving 87 months in prison for fraud not related to hunting. There may be more than than these five, but even if that number was doubled or tripled, the majority of the club’s other past presidents and high officers do not deserve to be slandered. Q. “How many of SCI's PH Of The Year have turned out to be outright criminal?” A. Fifty five men and one woman received SCI Professional Hunter of the Year Awards since the program began 34 years ago in 1980. According to a list I found on the internet, the awards presented in 1986 and 1994 were rescinded, presumably because of illegal or unethical acts of the recipient. So the answer is two, or 3.57% of the total. I agree with you that SCI spends an extraordinary amount of time and effort glorifying the size of animals. Unfortunately, it is not the only hunting organization that promotes trophy hunting. If you must place blame for that, blame a taxidermist named Rowland Ward in Britain and the Boone & Crockett Club in America. As for cheating, corruption and criminal activities, neither SCI nor any other hunting organization sanctions or encourages such things. All will rescind awards and remove record book entries when wrongdoing is proved. Bill Quimby | |||
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Hello Bill - Glad you took the time and effort to research and compile "actual" facts and information on this issue. This is something that is lacking not only by "SCI Bashers" here on AR but seems to be the norm throughout our Media concerning the current Administration here in the USA as well. When people are so "blinded" by their own bias on ANY subject it becomes very obvious where their real issues are coming from. I am sure the "bashers" will make every effort to shame and blame SCI whenever the smallest "hint" not facts, come out from any source whether reliable or not. Have you noticed the "mainstream media" here in our Country is operating in the same fashion? Fact be dammed, if the issue or story meets our own selfish interests, let's go for it seems to be the norm? Thanks again for the facts and since you were on the "inside" at SCI for a good long time, tend to go with your "facts" as opposed to the other sides hearsay and BS here on AR. And by the way I believe "cheerleaders for the overall good" is a dandy thing.  Larry Sellers SCI(International)Life Member R8 Blaser | |||
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If we still have people like Bill in the SCI management, I bet we won't be hearing about all the shenanigans that has been going on. But, having the likes of Kevin Anderson at the helm is exactly why SCI has become an irrelevant organization as one can expect! | |||
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Saeed - If for one second you really think SCI has become an irrelevant organization in the hunting scene then you have overindulged in the Kool Aid one to many times.  Kevin Anderson has been gone quite awhile now so the idea to keep blaming him is about as bad as Obozo still blaming Bush for everything. Simply not a legitimate claim any longer. Time to let it go and try some other rhetoric. Larry Sellers SCI(International)Life Member R8 Blaser | |||
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Larry, SCI HAS become totally IRRELEVANT. Remember what happened with lions? How mush they claimed they have for that? Where has the money gone? Check the thread of the NRA's involvement in elephant conservation. Oh how I wish SCI can be as effective as the NRA. How many INNER CIRCLES does the NRA have? Do the NRA BLACKMAIL their members non-stop?? Kevin Anderson might have gone, sadly, the same sort of characters are still running that silly organization! | |||
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Oh well, I guess you have passed the point of no return my friend. Have a Happy New Year and best wishes to you and your family. Larry Sellers SCI(International)Life Member R8 Blaser Sabatti 'trash'Double Shooter
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And all the best to you and your family my friend. I don't either of us is going to change SCI much! | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Hunting African Big Game Hunting Out of Africa: Czechs seize 24 rhino horns, charge 16 traffickers
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