Endangered black rhinos drugged, mutilated by poachers
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Illegal poaching has escalated to such a degree in Zimbabwe that some rhinos there are now under round-the-clock armed protection, Discovery News has learned from conservationists who are attempting to defeat poachers equipped with automatic machine guns and ammunition belts. See footage of the protected rhinos here. “We are losing rhinos at an alarming rate,” Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said. “We have lost 15 this year alone.” … John Travers said last week that a released rhino named Cleopatra “was drugged” and “dehorned by literally scalping her…Cleopatra is now faceless.” “How cruel,” Travers asked, “has man become?” …poachers broke into the conservancy, “tied up and assaulted the guards, and proceeded to kill three rhinos in their pens.” Only a young rhino named Tatenda, which weeks beforehand had its horns removed to protect it from attack, survived. “So at just six weeks old, Tatenda was found cowering in the corner of the pen covered in his mother’s blood,” she said. “With the escalating poaching problems, it appears Tatenda may be facing the same fate his mother did, and her mother beforehand.” …
