Rhino Poaching Not A Recommended Career Choice

Stomping poachers is thirsty work.

Here’s our own Perry Gaskill adding some depth to the poacher’s story, who if you’ll recall wound up having a very bad day.

Circle of Life

by Perry Gaskill

(author’s note – This is a longer updated version of a brief item that ran in Sunday’s Feel Good Stories. Sorry for any annoying redundancy- PG)

This story has everything but laughing hyenas.

Reports from over the week-end tell the strange tale of the fate of a South African rhino poacher who died in a mishap in Kruger National Park. According to park rangers and law enforcement sources, the unidentified poacher who was part of a hunting group was suddenly attacked by an elephant, and trampled to death as a result. According to Police Brigadier Leonard Hlathi:

“His accomplices claimed to have carried his body to the road so that passers-by could find it in the morning. They then vanished from the park.

“Once outside, they reportedly informed a relative of the dead man about their ordeal.”

When those relatives told police about the missing man, it launched a two-day search involving both ground and air elements. The result was that on the second day, rangers recovered what they believe to be all that remained of the missing poacher. According to Skukuza regional ranger Don English:

“Indications found at the scene suggested that a pride of lions had devoured the remains leaving only a human skull and a pair of pants.”

Police have also arrested three men believed to have been involved, and seized two .375 hunting rifles and ammunition. They’re not an isolated case. Kruger National Park alone has recently had rhino poaching arrests total more than 400 in an average year. The government of South Africa, in an effort to prevent extinction, has declared protection of the rhino a matter of national priority.

Why rhino poachers risk getting arrested– or trampled by elephants and eaten by lions– is a matter of money. Current estimates are that horns harvested from rhino can be worth $300,000 on the black market, or $60,000 per kilogram. When ground into powder, the horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat male impotency among other things.

It strikes me that there’s an interesting larger moral dilemma in play here. On one hand, those of us raised in an Anglo-Saxon tradition might find ourselves sympathetic to the plight of the poacher. If the lord of the manor controls more land and wildlife than he will ever need in Sherwood Forest, it’s hard to condemn someone wanting to shoot a deer if his kids are hungry. In such a situation, you might tend to root for the outlaw, and not the Sheriff of Nottingham.

On the other hand, it’s not an ethical paradox to also think that somehow the world is a better place with rhino, elephants, and lions still living in it. Folks in Kruger National Park aren’t fighting a battle against those trying to survive; they’re fighting a battle against greed. And it’s difficult to work up sympathy when what’s driving a black market is some rich Chinese guy named Wang having trouble with his wing-wang.

It might also be mentioned that the Chinese use bear parts as an aphrodisiac which can lead to the logical conclusion:

Support the Right to Arm Bears…

Thanks for the article, Perry, and Hakuna matata.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Guest Post, Guns, Internet, Reality Check, Shitbags