Free Republic

Poachers have broken into a French zoo, killing a four-year-old white rhinoceros and sawing off its horn. Keepers found the dead animal, named Vince, in the African enclosure of the zoo at Thoiry, west of Paris, on Tuesday morning. It had been shot in the head and its large horn removed with a chainsaw. The poachers fled before they could remove the animal’s second horn, either because they were disturbed or because their equipment failed, police said. Authorities described the incident as the first of its kind in Europe. The poachers forced a grill at the rear entrance to the...

Windhoek (AFP) - A US hunter who paid $350,000 to kill a black rhinoceros in Namibia successfully shot the animal on Monday, saying that his actions would help protect the critically-endangered species. Corey Knowlton, from Texas, downed the rhino with a high-powered rifle after a three-day hunt through the bush with government officials on hand to ensure he killed the correct animal. Knowlton, 36, won the right to shoot the rhino at an auction in Dallas in early 2014 -- attracting fierce criticism from many conservationists and even some death threats. He took a CNN camera crew on the hunt...

More rhinos were killed by poachers last year in Africa than ever before. In 2014 the dubious record looks set to be broken again. The black market price for rhino horn is now considerably higher than cocaine. Poachers from Mozambique's poorest villages sneak into South Africa, heavily armed under the cover of darkness. They are here to hunt rhinos. The money they make from just one rhino horn is enough to feed their families for months. It’s a payoff worth risking their lives for. Between 1990 and 2007 poachers killed on average 14 rhinos a year in South Africa. Last...