hell of a security protocol at that zoo. Poachers shot a gun three times and ran a chainsaw to cut the horn and NO ONE heard them??? WTH?

I was at Thoiry in October and took this shot of their three rhinos.



It's a very big place, with surveillance cameras and security, so I hope they catch the bastards. The poaching most likely took place at night, poached rhino found in the morning.

I have been to that zoo! I was not impressed with the staff/security. There were very few patrons and not a lot of visible staff.

What a world we find ourselves in. The sad part is there are groups that would have rather killed that poor fellow than have him enslaved in a zoo.

Bastards should be tortured and hanged in the rhino enclosure.

I find it a terrible shame that we have lost 2 great animals due to lust of money. We are dimished.

There is another aspect of the crime which governments outside of Africa may have to consider and legislate. Just what is the crime? This rhino is the property of a zoo, not a wild animal, so is it poaching? What will they charge the perpetrators with? Illegal use of a firearm? Using a firearm next to a building (since there are laws about that in France)? That's on the criminal front, but maybe it will end up in civil courts: destruction of private property, trespassing, etc.

I suppose the legislators will have to run to their desks and invent a new criminal offense, since I suspect there is little on the books here for this "new" kind of crime in Europe.

Robbery? Theft?

I am kind of excited to see how it works out. Where I usually have lunch is often frequented by German Police. I'll ask if they have heard anything about it.

Well maybe if there's any good to come from this hopefully the poaching problem will now get some attention rather than the general uniformed feeling that "hunters" are responsible killing all those lovely creatures. At least that's what the public gets fed.

Either way it's pretty sad when an animal isn't even safe in a zoo anymore.

I just read that a bunch of Rhinos together is called a "crash", as in a "crash of Rhinos". I like that.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_rhinoceros

I was watching the early morning show on CBS the day after this happened. Across the bottom of the screen appeared hunters kill rhino in French zoo. Not criminals or poachers but hunters.

This was inevitable at $65k/kg, as are the thefts of horns from museums. 5 years ago the US Association of Zoos and Aquariums would not divulge the location of rhino in the 'States not on public display. So, a wake-up call.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...d152e4b02655f8442ebf



05/04/2017 06:17 am ET

Century-Old Rhino Horn Stolen From University Of Vermont

It’s likely headed to the international black market.
By Nick Visser

Authorities are offering a reward for information leading to the recovery of a century-old rhino horn that was stolen from the University of Vermont last month.

A spokesperson for the university told Vermont Public Radio that the horn had been acquired sometime in the early 1900s for an academic museum and was part of a natural history collection. It came from a black rhinoceros and had hung in a locked room inside the university’s Torrey Hall for decades.

The horn was pilfered in late April when a thief used a drill to bypass a lock meant to protect it.

“My immediate impression is that someone went through some great trouble to target this thing and obtain it,” Robert Rothe, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told The Associated Press.

Campus police have offered up $3,000 for the horn’s return.

Rhino horn is prized in some Asian countries as a cure for everything from cancer to impotence. But the horns have no scientifically-proven medical benefit and are made from keratin, the same material as human fingernails.

On the black market ground horn has reportedly sold for more than its weight in gold or cocaine, peaking at about $65,000 a kilogram in 2012. While prices have fallen in recent years, demand for rhino horn has decimated the few remaining rhino populations left in the wild. More than 1,000 rhinos have been poached in South Africa in each of the last four years, far higher than 2007 when just 13 were killed.



Even animals under protection aren’t safe. Earlier this year, poachers killed a rhino living at a French zoo, then hacked off its horn with a chainsaw before fleeing the scene.

Despite the ongoing threats, South Africa recently lifted its ban on the domestic trade of rhino horn. Commercial rhino breeders, some sitting on stockpiles of horn worth millions of dollars, have long fought for such a ruling, saying funds from horn sales could help save the animals and ensure their survival.

Wildlife groups slammed the move, claiming that a legal trade would only lead to more poaching.

“Legal trade in rhino horn is not the way to stop rhino poaching,” Susie Watts, a senior wildlife campaigner for WildAid, said. “All it does is stimulate demand and provide a cover for illegal trade.”

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Very simple to dehorn all captive rhino ....
and there would not be any 'poaching' in zoos etc.

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I have long wondered what zoos and private owners are doing to protect their rhinos. Dehorning seems to be a good first step.