Southern White Rhino Protections upheld at CITES

​worldanimalnews.com/breaking-protections-for-southern-white-rhinos-are-kept-in-place-at-cites-after-namibia-eswatini-unsuccessfully-requested-to-allow-hunting/

Protections for southern white rhinos were upheld at the recent CITES gathering after two African nations attempted to lift protections. In lifting those protections, they would allow the trade of rhino parts including their much sought after horns as well as trophy hunting of the rhinos. 

Of the two nations in Africa that tried to lift the protections, Namibia and Eswatini, rhino populations are so drastically low that allowing trophy hunting and parts trading would most assuredly lead to their extinction. Eswatini specifically has approximately 65 white rhinos left in the wild, can you imagine what lifting their protections would do? I imagine it would take less than 5 years to wipe them out entirely which is completely unacceptable. 

Motivation for these nations to lift these protections boils down to financial gain. They stand to make significant money on allowing trophy hunting not to mention the poaching and selling of rhino parts. The trophy hunting industry specifically, generates significant income for these nations and each rhino kill can net anywhere between 10 - 30 thousand dollars approximately which they can funnel into their communities all while hiding behind the guise of conservation. When it comes to a species that has less than 65 total in one specific area, there is absolutely no excuse for allowing trophy hunting and we must call it out for what it is, a perversion that rich people accept as normal. 

I've said it before and I will continue to say it over and over again, trophy hunting needs to be banned globally. There is no justification for slaughtering an endangered animal and I' quite sick and tired hearing about trophy hunting in general. These animals are already dealing with perils like climate change and habitat loss without the addition of being hunted for sport. It's completely sick to think that there are still people out there who would be willing to pay all of this money to stalk and shoot dead an animal like a lion, elephant, or giraffe considering they are all extremely vulnerable to extinction.

If we do not globally ban trophy hunting, we will see the extinction of these animals helped along much faster. In times of crisis, we should be coming together and looking for ways to protect them, not trying to lift their protections so that we can hunt them to extinction. Enough is enough!

HAPPY VEG