H
owever, just a few kilometers
away, as Ms. Hong Nhung
continues, you can smell
the foul odor of decaying
carcasses carried downwind
and hear the sounds of flocks of vultures and
perceive the silhouettes of lions. They have
already caught scent of a dead rhino! During
the journey across Kruger National Park, you
will also encounter park rangers and officials
who are patrolling the premises to catch
poachers and horn smugglers.
Those who
see this
scene cannot
but feel the
bitterness
in their own
throats.
Following these police officers, ambassadors
from the rhino conservation campaign of
Vietnam witnessed the scene of a crime.
Hunters are afraid of the noise their gunshots
cause so they just fire a shot to injure the
rhino enough to bring it down. After that,
they saw off the rhino’s horn, pierce its eyes
and cut off its genitals while it is still alive.
The rhino, barely alive, cannot drink water
because of the cuts made on its head. Water
does not flow down its throat when it attempts
to swallow but runs out its cheeks. Those who
see this scene cannot but feel the bitterness in
their own throats. Rhinos with their horns cut
off die in pain, hungry and thirsty as they lie
helplessly for hours in the savannah. What is
more disturbing is that is that some poachers
feel no twinge of guilt in cutting a baby rhino
out of its mother’s womb to remove its little
horn as well.
I've seen a veterinarian specializing in rhinos
embracing the fractured ribs of an unborn calf
whose mother had been killed. I can imagine
how painful it is. There are some difficult
cases when they find an injured rhino and
must decide whether to attempt to rescue it
or kill it so that it might suffer less from the
agonizing pain”, expressed an African friend.
Nowadays, teenagers from indigenous tribes
no longer have a chance to connect with their
spirit animals. Some of them are fortunate
to touch rhinos, and smile happily, as they
walk about the savannah with their family.
However, these young people are petrified
to find the next morning that these same
rhinos had been killed ruthlessly. What’s
happening???
“Do you know that 90% rhino horns will be
transported to Vietnam?” Thanh Bui asked.
In this country, people are willing to spend
USD300,000 for a piece of a rhino horn. They
aren’t concerned about driving a species to
the edge of extinction, and they blindly believe
that consuming a rhino’s nails and genitals
will be good for theirs. Rhinos, the strong
giants from prehistoric times with no enemy
in the natural world, are now threatened just
because of human’s greed! What should
we do now? It is a tough problem but many
volunteers and ambassadors have made it
their mission to find solutions.
Part 2: The journey of protecting rhinos will
be published on the next issue.
TRAVELLIVE
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