Rhino shot dead by poachers at French zoo (horn sawed off)

The Guardian ^ | 03-07-2017 | Kim Willsher

[NRx]

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 zoo, near the rhinoceros enclosure. They then broke through two further locked doors into the building containing three white rhino on Monday night.

“It’s possible the thieves didn’t have time to take the others,” a police spokesman said.

Park director Thierry Duguet said the attack was “unbelievable” and that Vince had been one of the most popular attractions at the zoo.

[Nifster]

No doubt one of the culturally superior immigrants

[Gay State Conservative]

He confirmed that there is no real poaching problem, nor are animals endangered in the countries of Africa where they have legal and well maintained hunting laws and seasons.

I have no way to confirm or refute what you were told.I've only visited national parks in three countries:Tanzania,Kenya and South Africa.

Tanzania and Kenya are two of the poorest nations on earth.I don't have the first clue what laws,if any,they have in force regarding the hunting of "game".But it's not at all difficult to imagine people trying to kill elephants and rhinos in order to get horns/tusks that are worth the local equivalent of three years income.

As for Kruger National Park in South Africa...that country isn't quite as poor (or,perhaps.nearly as poor) as Tanzania and Kenya.However,Kruger is in the northeastern part of the country right up against the border with Mozambique,one of the poorest nations on earth.Our guide there told us that the poachers at Kruger are almost all from Mozambique and most of the rest are from Zimbabwe (which also borders on Kruger).

I'm surely no expert on this matter but it seems that hunting laws aren't a factor in *every* country's poaching problem.

[ronniesgal]

* I love South Park!!!*

[cyclotic]

Here’s an interesting article I just found. It supports my original thought. It’s also the first one I found on Google.

http://www.rexano.org/ConservationPages/Kenya_Frame.htm

[jimnm]

In Kruger in South Africa, the anti-poaching patrols will kill any poachers found on sight. The same is true for the private game reserves that border Kruger. They’ve killed hundreds of them in the last few years as it’s the only moderately effective anti-poaching tool. It’s the same in Botswana - on sight. The poachers are, as you say, mostly from Mozambique.

It’s still very, very bad especially with the Rhinos. I frequent a private game reserve near Kruger and the rangers are now much more heavily armed, have increased paramilitary patrols, use air assets, and now tell tourists to disable the location/GPS tools on iPhones/Androids that tag photos with GPS coordinates. This is because the gangs employ people to troll social media for new photos of Rhinos to find out where exactly they’ve been sighted. I suppose it’s not surprising but tells you how organized they are. There are communities in Mozambique where the whole town is involved in this through supplies, labor, weapons, marketing, and intelligence.

[Rurudyne]

Oh, look! It’s Birr (on the left) and Hirrary (on the right). That’s a nice looking Maosuit she’s wearing.

[Rurudyne]

Aside: do you notice how upset folk get about treating drug dealers this way elsewhere in the world?

But not a whimper about poacher’s civil rights.

[piasa]

yep... some AQIM leader is probably offering an exceptionally good price.

[redfreedom]

What’s wrong with poaching RINO’s??

There’d be fewer bumps with Trump’s plan to take America back if we had fewer of them.

You must be a DU troll.

[EinNYC]

I would rather we remove the private parts from poachers w/o anesthesia. It seems more fair, and a better deterrent.

I would rather they take these ignorant savages--what, they think a zoo is a supermarket for illicit animal body parts?--and throw them shackled into a cage of hyenas. Anything left should be fed to crocodiles. And it should be filmed and shown in immigrant neighborhoods. That poor captive animal, had no chance, was not looking for humans to hurt him.