No end to senseless killing of our animals

Statistics released this week revealed rhino poaching was slightly down on last year. During the first half of 2016, 542 rhinos were slaughtered.

During the same period in 2017, 529 rhinos were killed. That’s 13 deaths less – certainly not much to celebrate.

It works out to 2.93 rhinos being butchered a day, but one rhino death is one too many. Kruger Park has been hit the hardest in recent years.

It has forced government to take rhino poaching seriously, upping resources and technology to fight wildlife crime and throwing money at the scourge.

The fight seems to be working in the Kruger Park, which recorded a decrease of 34%. The department of Environmental Affairs has allocated R104 million for fighting poaching from 2016 to 2019.

Is it enough? Many will say no, but it is a step in the right direction. A new concern is that the poaching of elephants is on the rise in the Kruger Park.

This year 30 elephants have been killed. During the whole of 2016, 46 elephants were killed.

There’s no end to the senseless killing of our animals.

We live in hope that the authorities will find a way to halt these deaths, and bring to book those that are responsible for their cowardly actions.