White rhino caught in cable snare

September 02 2010 at 08:41AM

By KRISTEN VAN SCHIE and SAPA

A white rhino was on Wednesday found dead with both horns removed in Ndumo, Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife said.

"The rhino had been caught in a cable snare that seemed to have been deliberately set for big game, such as hippo, buffalo or rhino, all of which frequent the area. Both horns had been removed," said Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesman Jeff Gaisford.

It was believed that the rhino was trapped in the snare on Tuesday, but was only found by game rangers yesterday.

"This brings the total number of rhinos killed by poachers in KwaZulu-Natal this year to 15," Gaisford said. The sex of the adult rhino was unknown and no arrests had been made.

From 2006 to 2009, 210 rhino were killed in South Africa - about seven each month, conservationists said yesterday.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) named September "Rhino Month" but in the past eight months alone, 188 rhino have been butchered. At this rate, the poaching toll will hit at least 275 by the end of the year. The head of the WWF's African Rhino Programme, Joseph Okori, called for harsher prison sentences for poaching.

"We need severe sentences that act as real deterrents," he said.

This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on September 02, 2010