South African Customs Intercepts 3.5 Million Dollars in Rhino Horns

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South African customs intercepted 3.5 million dollars worth of rhino horns that were headed to Malaysia. The suspicious packages labelled as "HD Cartridges Developers" were deemed suspicious by customs employees who decided it needed to be sent for X-Rays. The X Rays determined that there were rhino horns evident, buried within clothing in the 3 suspicious packages. That's when they discovered 18 rhino pieces, totaling approximately 3.5 million U.S. dollars.

The illegal wildlife trade is ravaging wildlife populations across the globe. The horns of rhinos and elephants continue to be a prized possession through the black market, fetching millions of dollars, which is why so many people continue to risk their lives to obtain ivory. These poachers go to such great lengths to obtain ivory, putting their lives on the line to obtain it in the hopes of striking it rich. The allure of financial security is enough motivate these poachers despite the fact that rhinos face the possibility of extinction.

Despite the tireless efforts of anti-poaching task forces, poaching continues to be a grave threat to some of Africa's most imperiled animals. Elephants and rhinos are most vulnerable to poaching, simply because of their horns which continue to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. These innocent, majestic animals are often shot to immobilize them before their horns are violently cut off, sometimes while the animals are clinging to life. The illegal wildlife trade is sickening and exploitative, but a solution is within reach.

I've spoken out about this before many times, but it's time to devalue some of these items that continue to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars on the black market. First of all, we need to be shutting down ANY markets that sell ivory, legal or not. We must strip value from any item that is stolen from an endangered animal. Ivory, pangolin scales, tiger blood etc., if we collectively as a planet strip all monetary value form these items, there is less motivation to continue to slaughter these animals. The black market will always be there, but if we've devalued these items so exponentially that the gain no longer outweighs the risk, maybe we can continue to curb these illegal poachings.

I don't have all of the solutions, but I do know that this problem is persistent and we must continue to come up with new ideas to protect vulnerable species from extinction. The fact is, there are roughly 27, 000 rhinos left on our planet and even one being poached is too many. Rhinos are already relegated to National Parks for the most part because outside of the parks, they are poached for ivory. 27, 000 individuals is next to nothing when you consider the population of Africa. As I said, even one being slaughtered is too many when you consider extinction as a reality. 

I'm forever grateful for the tireless efforts of anti-poaching units and the work the South African customs does every day to intercept these illegal shipments. While it's cause for celebration that this shipment was intercepted, it's also a very real wake-up call that despite all of these efforts, poaching remains a serious threat to the survival of endangered animals. There is still so much work to do to protect our planet's most vulnerable species.

HAPPY VEG