Interesting article on Rhinos:

http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...ival-of-species

All most makes you want to take your vacation and put together 4 man hunter killer teams and start wiping out the poachers without mercy. Maybe it would make a good humanitarian sabatical for ex-military guys. On par with doctors doing Doctors Without Borders.

It is really sad. The Asian market has driven this senseless slaughter because of the mistaken belief that powdered rhino horn is a panacea for everything that ails you. They think it is particularly good for erectile dysfunction.

The photo safari lodge I went to last year has stopped reporting any sightings of rhinos in their newsletter and the rangers are worried that they are going to be put in a position where they are going to be forced to kill poachers.

The hunting lodge I stayed at in Namibia works with the government to be a safe haven for black rhinos but there have been reports of unmarked aircraft flying low over the area.

poaching for horns should be punishable by death, no ifs ands or buts about it. If its for food for starving kids fine, but not just to kill a rhino for its horn.

Two nights ago they finally hit a friends farm. 2 adults and a sub-adult were slain. Poor baby was running around scaredvsenseless. I agree with the death penalty.

It pisses me off beyond belief. I hunt and am no tree hugger, but some things are just not right. The poachers shoud all get the African Tire death penalty.

More than one of my hunters that I sent to Zim were asked to help shoot poachers. Yeah, as in dead. One did, and thought it a great add to the Safari. One of the reasons I quit sending anyone over there and left the business.

That maybe correct but I believe most Horn ends up in Yemen as Dagger handles.

While we should support anti-poaching efforts financially and moraly, leave it to the locals.

That may have been partially true in the past but that isn't what is happening today. The Vietnamese and Chinese are the biggest players in the market now. No amount of evidence is going to convince them that what amounts to fingernails has no medicinal properties whatsoever. As for leaving it to the locals that is a big part of the problem.

Local PHs, veterinarians, and helicopter pilots in SA have been arrested for participating in rhino poaching. In fact one of the worst offenders is a guy named Dawie Groenewald who used to run Out of Africa Safaris.

You can look it up but he used to exhibit at SCI and many people were very upset that he has even allowed there. He had been suspected of illegal activities for years and even when presented with proof SCI turned a blind eye.

Give me an FN-FAL and I will supply the plane ticket.

I know what you are saying, but really sport hunters hunt rhinos for the horn too, just legally.

Nobody is going to kill a rhino to feed starving kids. There is too much other protein around around that is simpler to obtain.

Sounds very colonial doesn't it - putting the natives to death and calling it added sport?

Reminds me of the classic movie The Naked Prey, except the roles reversed. Now Bwana is the one protecting the lands and nature.