Baby Rhino Rescued From Tree

A crying three-week-old rhino was discovered with its head trapped in the fork of a tree.

• Poachers had hit the calk over the head with a machete and shot its mother dead.
• It took a half hour to free the calf since its head had swelled up.

A three-week-old South African rhino was rescued from a thorn tree after fleeing poachers who shot its mother dead and hit the calf over the head with a machete, a report said Thursday.
"I heard the little one cry, I saw it was trapped and was hurting, but I could not do anything until the vet arrived," game farm owner, Neels van Rensburg told Die Beeld newspaper.
The bleating baby white rhino was discovered with its head trapped in a v-shaped fork of a small tree near the carcass of its mother on a game farm near Pretoria. The cow had been shot in the heart and head.

 

http://news.discovery.com/animals/baby-rhino-rescued-poachers-110915.html

Rhino Killer Shot by Police

Call it justice, karma, or rhino relief. A serial rhino killer has been shot and killed by Swaziland police after he shot at them. ‘Lucky’ Maseko was wanted in South Africa for attempted murder, and environmental crimes, including the deaths of at least ten rhinos in the last two years. Swaziland is where he wound up after leaving a trail of death from South Africa, “Swaziland has been targeted because there is low risk here compared to doing the same in SA. The situation will get worse if the country amends the Game Act because criminals from other countries and even locals will know that it is safe to poach in Swaziland. They will use the weak legislation to their advantage,” said a conservation official there. (Source: Swaziland Times)
Maseko was just one of three rhino killers shot dead by Swaziland police. After the shooting of the rhino poachers, two rhino horns, guns and ammunition were recovered. An individual who commits such heinous crimes against human beings repeatedly is known as a serial killer. Will that term ever be extended to include humans that repeatedly cause the deaths of animals, especially if the killer is contributing to the extinction of an entire species? After all, humans are actually just primates and also animals. So what exactly is the difference? Animal poachers who repeatedly kill animals have been known to shoot at conservation rangers sometimes killing them. Shouldn’t the law recognize the relationship between animal destruction and violence against humans in psychopaths and sociopaths and punish them accordingly?
Maseko was listed on the INTERPOL website was wanted. He was also one of South Africa’s most wanted, for various poaching charges and skipping bail. In South Africa he was once caught at a police roadblock with guns near a nature preserve containing rhinos. It was assumed he intended to kill some of them.
Swaziland is a very small country bordered on three sides by South Africa, so it is sort of inside the borders of South Africa. In the 1990s they were losing one rhino  per week due to poaching. Today they might be down to just about 100.
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/rhino-killer-shot-by-police.html

Turning rhinos into fast bucks

When it comes to poaching, Wollworths has moved beyond the egg section. Woolworths recently threw its weight behind rhino conservation with its MyPlanet scheme that encourages customers to contribute to the MyPlanet Rhino Fund (an Endangered Wildlife Fund initiative) by swiping their cards at participating retailers. Well done Woolworths - but take a deeper look, because a leopard doesn't change it's spots.

http://www.noseweek.co.za/article/2614/Turning-rhinos-into-fast-bucks

Owner dehorns rhinos

The owner of a Jeffrey's Bay nature reserve believes dehorning the rhino on his property will minimise the risk of the animals being poached.

Johan Lottering has dehorned 10 of the 13 rhino on the reserve after being tipped off about a possible attack by poachers.

He said they plan to do this every two years.

Lottering said the horns have been stored in a safe at a bank.

“It is in a safe deposit in the bank because it’s too dangerous to keep it on the farm. We twice received tip-offs that people were about to strike over weekends but we had people out in the veld 24 hours a day over weekends,” he said.

Hundreds of rhino are poached every year in South Africa.

In the most recent incident, environmental officials and police have reportedly launched a manhunt for poachers who killed two white rhinos in the Sandveld Nature Reserve in the Free State.

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/Story.aspx?Id=76425

Thai rhino horn suspect seeks bail

A Thai national accused of buying rhino horns through permits acquired illegally by strippers and prostitutes took his battle to be freed on bail to the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday.

The man claims the State has no grounds for detaining him.

Chumlong Lemtongthai was challenging last month’s ruling by the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court that he was a flight risk as he had nothing tying him to South Africa.

In opposing his bail, the State had argued it was possible for Lemtongthai to skip the country despite his travel documents being in the investigating officer’s possession because he could bribe Home Affairs officials to get other documents. Magistrate Eric Mhlari agreed, saying it was not impossible for people without documents to travel.

But, arguing in court on Wednesday, Lemtongthai’s counsel, advocate Laurance Hodes SC, disagreed, saying the magistrate had erred in refusing bail and that it was unconstitutional to deny a person bail simply because they had no family in South Africa.

“The magistrate erred in holding that he was of the opinion that the fears of the State that the appellant may not stand trial, it being possible that the appellant might flee the country, there being nothing binding the appellant to South Africa, led him to conclude bail should be refused. The magistrate erred in finding the appellant constituted a flight risk.”

Hodes said Mhlari had also erred in finding that the State had a strong case against Lemtongthai, saying he had a solid defence to charges of contravening the Customs and Excise Act and fraud. The man was willing to pay R100 000 bail and there was no evidence to prove he would skip bail.

However, prosecutor Allen Simpson differed, arguing that no amount of money would be sufficient to keep Lemtongthai in the country. “Money is clearly not an object, so he is indeed a flight risk.”

Judge Motsamai Makume reserved judgment for tomorrow.

Lemtongthai is accused of running a syndicate that used Thai prostitutes and strippers, who would pose as hunters.

The State said 26 rhinos had been shot this way, and Lemtongthai had sold the horns for R65 000 a kilogram.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/thai-rhino-horn-suspect-seeks-bail-1.1165912