Rhino family found butchered and dehorned in KZN
CNS Reporter/Dave Savides
27.5.2015 01.10 pm
Three white rhino have been found brutally butchered and dehorned at Charters Creek, KwaZulu-Natal.
A postmortem estimated the bull, cow and calf to have been shot and killed about a week before the discovery on Sunday, Zululand Observer reported.
“Ezemvelo field rangers on a routine patrol on the Western Shores of Lake St Lucia, southwest of Charters Creek, found the family group of three rhino, which included a calf, poached and all their horns hacked off and taken by the perpetrators,” said iSimangaliso CEO Andrew Zaloumis.
“Rhino poaching in KZN has continued in 2015 at the same rate as 2014, with a shocking average of two rhino being per poached week. Sadly the iSimangaliso Wetland Park has not escaped this ruthless slaughter and dreadful onslaught on all our heritage.”
With another rhino carcass found at the Mkhuze Game Reserve on Saturday, the KZN rhino death toll has risen to 38 this year.
Zaloumis added Ezemvelo, who are the responsible agency for wildlife protection in iSimangaliso, confirmed they have stepped up patrols in the area.
“Investigations are continuing from the SAPS Hawks unit and Ezemvelo staff. They have the full and active support of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority,” said Zaloumis.
This after Outraged South African Citizens Against Rhino Poaching (Oscap) revealed more than three rhino are poached every day. That is if you take the latest available statistics, according to which 365 rhino have been poached since the beginning of the year, 270 of them in the Kruger National Park. The figure was obtained from Oscap, as the environmental affairs department does not release the statistics on a monthly basis any longer. According to Oscap director, Allison Thomson, the organisation has resources available to assist with the collation of the poaching statistics.
Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa said on March 3, in reaction to a question by DA’s shadow minister of environmental affairs Terri Stander, that her department was only in a position to release the rhino-poaching statistics “quarterly or so”. The minister stated her department did not have the resources available to publish these statistics more regularly.
– Caxton News Service