Zimbabwe crisis hits black rhino

BBC News ^ | Friday, November 23, 2007 | Jon Kay

[SunkenCiv]

Charles Hamilton has just returned to the UK from Zimbabwe, where his family runs the park. He called the situation "desperate"... The pictures showed all three of his family's adult black rhinos, lying dead on the dusty floor. You can see the bullet-holes in their thick hides. "It's just totally unbelievable," Charles sighed. For the past 20 years the family has been rearing the animals and returning them to the wild, but last week, in the dead of night, armed men in camouflage gear burst onto the site and shot dead all three adult females. One of them was just days away from giving birth. Her unborn calf died as well... "It is deeply tragic. We've been left with four little orphan rhinos, which won't be able to reproduce for about 20 years. The whole breeding programme is now at a standstill. It's desperate." ...There are only about 3,000 black rhinos left in the wild, and the species is listed as Critically Endangered by the World Conservation Union, which means they "face an extremely high risk of extinction". Last year, one of the four sub-species was declared as "already extinct".

[SunkenCiv]

The youngest of the orphans is now being bottle-fed

[SunkenCiv]

Civil war in Zimbabwe ping.

[pissant]

Shoot, I thought they were talking about DeRoy Murdoch.

[SunkenCiv]

zimbabwe rhinos site:freerepublic.com

Google

[P-40]

Quick! Someone call the UN!

[ferri]

this makes me SICK! i would love to go over there and just wipe Zim clean of these ‘humans’, starting with their lovely President. #$%^

[DB]

Zimbabwe is dead.

They got what they voted for.

[Exton1]

I am waiting for the outrage from PETA and the other Environmental groups. Wait do I hear crickets chirping?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

For the past 20 years the family has been rearing the animals and returning them to the wild, but last week, in the dead of night, armed men in camouflage gear burst onto the site and shot dead all three adult females.

This is just pathetic. The rhinos had even been de-horned, so there was no financial benefit to killing these animals. The men who did this are helping to destroy one of their nation's most priceless assets, one that could bring in millions of dollars in tourism.

[SunkenCiv]

I’m sure Greenpeace will step in, as soon as they get done with lie-spreading about iPods and Macs.

[SunkenCiv]

I’m pretty sure there won’t be tourists in Zimbabwe until there’s regime change and armed gangs aren’t roaming everywhere.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Yeah, that’ll work. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Well, the liberal meddlers who don’t live in the country certainly did...

[SunkenCiv]

For Mugabe, a bullet is too quick and merciful.

[neverdem]

Civil war in Zimbabwe ping.

I wouldn't call it a civil war, but Zimbabwe can boast about the worst characteristics of tyranny and anarchy simultaneously. A civil war might start some political progress.

[SunkenCiv]

It’s more like the Cultural Revolution was in China, except that Zimbabwe doesn’t have the massive population to sustain it.

[agere_contra]

IIRC, about half of Zimbabwe’s population left already (moved to South Africa). I guess the Chinese didn’t have that option.