Devastated. Rhino Poaching.

[UnanimousAnonymous]

I know some people don't give a damn about extinction but this is close to my heart.
late june to july, I went to south Africa to a reserve I don't want to mention. But, these people have given up their lives to preserve south African wild life including the white rhino. They were proud to say they hadn't had a rhino poached but knew it could come soon. Tonight I have heard that one rhino, a 6yr old female named winnie, who was due to give birth in about 2 months time, was found poached this morning.
Her spine has been slashed and she possibly was alive when her face was hacked off.
I am truly devastated and sickened. I have shed many tears as if she was my own. I got to meet her and follow her many times whilst I was there.
whilst I was in Africa, 2 rhino were poached at the nearby pilanesbury national park which hurt a lot, but this hurts much more. these people at this reserve have no government support, they are self sustaining, they put their all into protecting their animals. I met this rhino, these people knew her from birth.
All this pain for nothing but greed, rhino horn serves no purpose. it has no medicinal value but this still goes on. Why are humans so greedy!?
I guess my point to this post is to raise awareness and share my grief, I have plans for fund raising for this reserve (which means I have to face my biggest fear!) and hope some of you may support me in this!

I know some people don't give a damn, but all animals play an important role in the ecosystems and serve a huge purpose. rhino horn is the same as horse hoof, our nails etc but im sure you would not want them shot and have their feet sorn off whilst still alive!?

my heart is broken tonight and the photo of winnie will haunt me forever.

[UnanimousAnonymous]

thankyou, I know that donating can be a problem but if people shared it would be amazing. I also saw a black rhino in Africa (a very very rare sight!).

this is something very close to my heart and I will be facing a huge fear as well as doing other fundraising events.
I am so lucky to have seen these animals in the wild as in the not to distant future I will only be able to view these animals in captivity due to human greed :(

[Palladion]

I share the same opinion as you. Wildlife Conservation is very close to my heart, in fact I even went to university to study it hoping that I can somehow be a part of saving wildlife in the future.

I absolutely hate animal poaching, however I often find myself thinking about the people that poach these animals, and wonder what their situations are. Most of the countries where this is happening are very poor and with many of their people living way below the poverty line, and so maybe this has something to do with the high levels of poaching? I have often wondered that if maybe more was done to help these countries overall, maybe poaching would go down?

Don't get me wrong I think poaching is terrible and absolutely wrong, and donating money to helping protect these animals is very important, but I just can't help but wonder if there was a way to prevent the poaching from happening in the first place.

However I do realise that is much easier said than done so in the meantime I guess protecting the animals more is all that can be done.

[JusC]

I have to agree with what ur saying. Doesnt matter if you like animals or not or if ur a meat eatter or not but no animal should have to go through that much pain. It is about building up awarness for a better place we live in.

Sadley, this still goes on everywhere. Though getting people to talk about it can hopefully share some awarness.

Your doing an amazing thing by going out and raising money for a good course. Sometimes we all need to give back.

JusC

[betterborges]

this is very sad