We're frequently presented with the image of poachers hunting in the shadows as the biggest problem facing rhinos but it's more pernicious than that. (Christian Science Monitor: South Africa's top court lifts ban on domestic sales of rhino horn: What does that mean for conservation?)
When a sales ban on the horns is lifted, that's not doing anything for poachers but rather for people who pretend they are not.
Dehorned rhinos at a rhino breeding station in Klerksdorp, South Africa, in March. South Africa's top court on Wednesday lifted the ban on domestic sales of rhino horn, drawing criticism.
- Renee Graham / AFP file
APRIL 6, 2017 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA—South Africa's Constitutional Court has dismissed an appeal by the Department of Environmental Affairs to keep a moratorium on the domestic trade in rhino horn, according to court documents seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
Pelham Jones, chairman of South Africa's Private Rhino Owners Association (PROA) which was one of the respondents in the case, told Reuters the decision meant that the sale of rhino horns was legal in South Africa.
"We welcome the Constitutional Court ruling, we believe it is a right we have been entitled to," he told Reuters.
- SD
Geez, don't be looking so shocked by that scurvy bastard. South Africa is where apartheid was the law. The country has never concerned itself with advancing the world's moral values. South Africa has been a disgrace through much of its existence and that's not changed at all in modern times.
The court action was initiated by private rhino ranchers and other associations, who say they need to sell horn to afford spiraling security costs which include armed patrols, helicopters and electric fencing.
According to the latest figures from PROA, more than 6,500 rhinos are in private hands in South Africa, over a third of the national population.
Rhino horn can be harvested as it grows back and it can be removed from a tranquilised animal.
- SD
There's the finest kind of political logic: we have to sell it since crooks will sell it anyway.
When a sales ban on the horns is lifted, that's not doing anything for poachers but rather for people who pretend they are not.
Dehorned rhinos at a rhino breeding station in Klerksdorp, South Africa, in March. South Africa's top court on Wednesday lifted the ban on domestic sales of rhino horn, drawing criticism.
- Renee Graham / AFP file
APRIL 6, 2017 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA—South Africa's Constitutional Court has dismissed an appeal by the Department of Environmental Affairs to keep a moratorium on the domestic trade in rhino horn, according to court documents seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
Pelham Jones, chairman of South Africa's Private Rhino Owners Association (PROA) which was one of the respondents in the case, told Reuters the decision meant that the sale of rhino horns was legal in South Africa.
"We welcome the Constitutional Court ruling, we believe it is a right we have been entitled to," he told Reuters.
- SD
Geez, don't be looking so shocked by that scurvy bastard. South Africa is where apartheid was the law. The country has never concerned itself with advancing the world's moral values. South Africa has been a disgrace through much of its existence and that's not changed at all in modern times.
The court action was initiated by private rhino ranchers and other associations, who say they need to sell horn to afford spiraling security costs which include armed patrols, helicopters and electric fencing.
According to the latest figures from PROA, more than 6,500 rhinos are in private hands in South Africa, over a third of the national population.
Rhino horn can be harvested as it grows back and it can be removed from a tranquilised animal.
- SD
There's the finest kind of political logic: we have to sell it since crooks will sell it anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment