Got a message today that 4 white rhinos were poached for their horns at Lalibela Game Reserve in South Africa.

This is really a bitch considering my good friend is the owner and I have just taken my family there a month ago. They rangers have been on the alert because more than 400 rhino have been poached in RSA this year alone. It seems to be organized and systematic.

I can't help but think that it is being coordinated by someone with a position in the government that has the ability to fly the horn in and out of the country in the diplomatic pouch. It has been documented thtat this is exactly what the family of Jomo Kenyatta's wife did in Kenya from the '60's to sometime in the '80's and I'm sure others followed suit.

The white rhino population rehabilitation has been one of the great wildlife success stories ever. There numbers were reduced to virtually nothing by the early 20th century, and the breeding program undertaken to rebuild their number saved them.

I can't fathom how in the world of Viagra and Cialis that there is still an Asian market for rhino horn as an aphrodisiac or ED treatment. Is there still a market for rhino dagger handles in Yemen? Seriously?

I saw this one just a few weeks ago. It got whacked last night. Pity.
I worry about the survival of the species.

Putting an end to green (darted) Rhino hunts does not help the situation. The ability to dart Rhino was a true incentive for ranchers to protect their animals as they had value on the land. That incentive has now been removed. The RSA DVMs are to blame for this and have been very short-sighted, IMO. I predicted an increase in poaching and a potential extinction of the White Rhino as a result of this mis-guided policy. We are now on the way to fulfilling that prediction.

If you go onto their face book page. Lalibela Game Reserve. You can read the whole story. Very sad. There has to be high up people involved in such an organised crime as this. Most probably some white people as well.

A real shame for sure.

did anyone check to see if Dawie G. has a solid alibi???