Courtesy of iol News
A Rhino poaching suspect has been shot and killed in a gunfight with wildlife rangers at Ndumo Game Reserve, on KwaZulu-Natal’s northern border with Mozambique.
The shooting happened early on Wednesday when a group of three poachers was intercepted in the reserve by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s anti-poaching unit.
Ezemvelo had received information on Tuesday night that a rhino poaching attempt was about to be launched in Ndumo.
According to Ezemvelo rhino security co-ordinator Jabulani Ngubane, rifle shots were fired when the poaching suspects were confronted around 5am.
Ezemvelo officers returned fire and, once the shooting stopped, a critically injured man was found nearby.
He died before an ambulance arrived at the reserve.
Ngubane said the man’s age, nationality and other personal details had not yet been established. The other two suspects, including a man carrying a rifle, escaped.
Police had been notified and were expected to investigate the incident.
Ngubane said 18 rhinos had been poached in KwaZulu-Natal this year, either on private ranches on in provincial reserves.
Nationwide, at least 159 rhinos have been killed by horn-poaching criminal syndicates this year.
The heaviest losses have been in the Kruger National Park, where at least 95 rhinos have been killed in just over three months.
SA National Parks environmental crimes investigations head Ken Maggs said last week that more than 600 rhinos would be dead by the end of the year if the current slaughter rate continued.
Maggs said rhino horn poaching was now increasingly co-ordinated by organised crime syndicates, with profit levels comparable to illegal weapons and drugs trading. – The Mercury
brilliant! i hope it was slow and agonizing and violent
Add unmerciful, and you’ve got all the sensations of being poached. I’m sure upon the poacher’s death, he realized how wrong it is to spill the blood of this beautiful spirit, for a momentary benefit.
Thanks Steve I went with the Malcolm Re-Blog check it out But My thoughts here are Arm The Animals send more guns!
Folks, keep up on your target practice! Too bad 2 of them escaped, hopefully angry rhinos trampled and gored them to death and crocodiles ate them.
one down but how many to go?
oh, maybe a hundred thousand or so? I do not favor the state, but as long as they exist everywhere, they might as well become useful, and impose capital punishment as the minimum penalty for any hunting and poaching.
unbelievable some people…………well when life continues to suck just remember u reap what the hell u sow……..
Hopefully this will be a deterrent to future poachers, but honestly all those “rejoicing” should really give it a little more consideration. It’s not the poacher that’s the problem, for there are many, many desperate folk that would quite happily give this a go… it’s the demand.
While the demand reamains this will be an issue.
Honestly this is the best example of don’t hate the player, hate the game!
Without the players there would be no game. The subhumans have always relied on the sub-subhumans to do their dirty work for them. If no one would do the deeds they would not get done. The doers are the worst of people and yes we should rejoice when they’re stopped. “Desperation” is no excuse… you would not excuse someone being desperate for going into the child porn industry. You only excuse those who abuse and murder animals, I would assume.
No, I would certainly not excuse someone going into the child porn industry… but stealing a loaf of bread, certainly. The point here is where that line is drawn.
Honestly with LEGAL hunting of rhino still going on, this should be seen more as stealing as per your example.
Nothing quite like rejoicing the victory over death by… um… death.
Nope, I’m still not going to blame the very badly paid players in this game but rather the chess player, they are little more than the pawns. It’s the demand that needs to be removed.
Poachers who hunt and kill rhinos and other endangered species are malevolent devils in human form. Evil incarnate reprobates !
And those that are doing it LEGALLY? Yup, all these creatures can still be hunted legally!