White rhino killed by poachers at French zoo

VERSAILLES, France: Intruders at a French zoo shot dead a white rhino and hacked off its horns in a grisly overnight poaching incident, police and the zoo said Tuesday.

The zoo in Thoiry outside Paris said it was the first such incident in Europe.

The perpetrators forced the main gate and broke through at least two other security barriers on Monday night, without disturbing five people who live on the grounds.

The animal, a four-year- old southern white male named Vince, was attacked inside an area where at least two other rhinos are kept.

“Staff left the rhino enclosure on Monday. When they returned on Tuesday, an animal had been killed and its two horns had been sawn off,” a police spokeswoman told AFP.

She added that the horns were “probably cut off with a chainsaw”.

The rhino had been shot three times in the head.

“Only the main horn was stolen,” the spokeswoman said.

The two other rhinos in the enclosure with Vince which were unharmed were a 37-year- old female, Gracie, and a five-year- old male, Bruno.

Thierry Duguet, the manager of the zoo, told AFP: “This has never happened before in a zoo, either in France or in Europe.

“We are extremely shocked and upset – this is supposed to be a sanctuary for the animals.”

Investigators estimate the horn is worth 30,000- 40,000 euros ( US$ 31,700- 42,250).

Black market rhino horn sells for up to 60,000 per kilo – more than gold or cocaine – with demand principally coming from China and Vietnam where it is coveted as a traditional medicine and supposed aphrodisiac. — AFP