16 Rhinos de-horned after 4 Rhino killed in just one night!
The issue facing private Rhino Custodian’s
In the space of a single day, a distraught reserve owner in South Africa lost four Rhinos. Each Rhino killed was a result of poaching. The reserve owners are responsible for the vast majority of remaining Rhino populations. However, being Rhino custodians comes with immense financial pressures, due to the security costs required to keep these animals safe. With the covid pandemic, many private reserve owners have seen a loss in tourism and with it income. Therefore, making caring for these animals extremely difficult.
This is where, with your support, our teams can provide life saving assistance.
How STS have helped the Private Rhino owner
Our STS vets have years of experience dealing with traumatic incidents of endangered species, offering the best guidance when facing these issues! Dr Johan and the STS team visited the desperate reserve owner, offering any assistance required.
We are able to support these wildlife caretakers with our veterinary services for free, in this case, in collaboration with the Council of Contributors and helicopter pilot Gerry McDonald. We were able to fly in, trim the horns, take DNA and blood samples and microchip all 16 Rhinos that remained on the reserve. Undoubtably making them less of a target for the poachers that were feared to still be in the area.
Trimming horns is never something we do lightly, every Rhino is different and there are many measures that we take to protect them. But, in some cases trimming horns is the most effective and immediate way to reduce the risk of them being a target to poachers, preventing Rhino being killed.
The Private Rhino owner said…
“I stand here with tears in my eyes because of your generosity. We didn’t see how we were going to get this done.” “It’s very lonely being a private Rhino owner. Until now, we didn’t have any support, we didn’t know anyone we could call who cares about wildlife the way we do.”
Help support our work and save the Rhino
It is your donations that make this possible. Your support has directly protected these Rhinos.
Thank you to all that have donated, please continue to show your support by donating here.
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