Description: This site makes the case that dehorning rhinos is the best way to keep them from being killed by poachers.
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Lynne MacTavish, operations manager at a private wildlife reserve in South Africa, mourns the death of one of her rhinos at the hands of poachers in 2014.
There's a war going on, and the good guys are losing. Throughout South Africa, men are invading wildlife preserves, killing rhinos and hacking off their horns while they are alive. If the rhino is pregnant, poachers may cut out the baby and take its tiny horn too.
Oftentimes, the poachers are hired locally and equipped by Asian crime syndicates , who have taken over the market for rhino horn since their sale was banned in 2008. The number of rhinos killed has skyrocketed: 83 in South Africa in 2008; 1,215 in 2014, 1,175 in 2015. Because the legal sale of horns is banned, the value has risen. Today, rhino horns are worth twice their weight in gold.