Rhino horn auction kicks off
IT’S ALL LEGAL: OWNER OF WORLD’S BIGGEST HERD PUTS 500KG UP FOR SALE
Conservation activists fear selloff will undermine 40-year global ban on trade.
South Africa’s first online auction of rhino horn opened yesterday with conservation groups protesting that the legal, domestic sale would encourage poachers.
The three-day auction, organised by John Hume, who owns the world’s largest private white rhino herd, got underway after a last-minute legal tussle pushed it back two days.
“It has started and the seller will only be available for comment after the auction,” a representative of Van’s Auctioneers, who declined to be named, said after the auction website went live.
Hume, who owns 1 500 rhinos on his farm north of Johannesburg, has stockpiled six tons of horns and wants to sell 264 pieces weighing a total of 500kg. He harvests the horns by tranquillising the animals and dehorning them – a technique he says is humane and wards off poachers.
Bidders must pay R100 000 to register for the auction. Commodity speculators would be able to buy “but may not export the horns”, Pelham Jones, chairperson of the Private Rhino Owners Association, said. Buyers cannot collect the horns until they obtain permits.
Activists opposed to the sale fear it will fuel trafficking and undermine a 40-year global ban on the rhino trade. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said it was concerned the SA police “do not have the capacity to manage parallel legal trade on top of current levels of illegal poaching”. WWF’s Jo Shaw added: “It’s hard to understand why anyone would buy rhino horn in SA when there are limited numbers of local consumers and it’s still illegal to export horn.”
An eight-year moratorium on the domestic trade of rhino horns was lifted in April. Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa said the government was closing
It’s still illegal to export rhino horn
“any possible loopholes that could pave the way for a circumvention of [international] regulations”.
An audit of existing rhino horn stockpiles was under way to “prevent the smuggling of illegally ob- tained horns out of the country”.
Private rhino owners said poached horns will not enter the market, as each horn is micro-chipped and their origins can be DNA-traced. Breeders believe open trade is the only way to stop poachers from killing rhinos and that the auction helps to promote “sustainable” use of resources and raises funds for protecting and conserving the rhino. – AFP