Auction of rhino horn gets nod
LACK OF PERMIT DELAYS SELLING BY TWO DAYS High court rules in favour of organiser John Hume, who runs world’s biggest farm.
Acontroversial online auction of rhino horn set to open yesterday has been delayed by two days after a legal challenge delayed the SA permit for the sale, the organisers said.
Outraged conservationists say the three-day auction could undermine the global ban on rhino products, and the SA authorities had moved to ban the sale.
But in an 11th-hour decision on Sunday, the High Court in Pretoria ruled in favour of the auction’s organiser, John Hume, who runs the world’s biggest rhino farm.
His lawyer had argued that the seller’s permit had been approved but not issued by the SA authorities, where a ban on domestic rhino horn trade was lifted three months ago.
The permit was handed over yesterday morning, and the homepage of the website for the sale – which is in English but offers versions in Chinese and Vietnamese – was changed to say that bidding would start tomorrow at 2pm. “We have only received the permit this morning,” said one of the auction officials.
The environmental affairs ministry said the permit had been withheld because it had been issued by a junior official, instead of the minister. The ministry yesterday said Hume could sell the horns only to people who have obtained buyers’ permits, none of which had been issued as of yet.
The ruling in April to lift the eight-year moratorium on rhino horn trade was said to have little impact outside SA because a ban on international trade is still in force. But rhino breeders say they believe open trade is the only way to stop poachers.
Hume, who owns 1 500 rhinos on his farm north of Johannesburg, has stockpiled six tons of horns and wants to place 264 horns, or about 500kg, under the hammer.
He harvests the horns by tranquillising the animals and dehorning them – a technique used to ward off poachers.
SA is home to about 20 000 rhinos, or about 80% of the worldwide population, but in recent years the country has suffered record slaughters by poachers.
Rhino horns are highly prized in Asia, and are estimated to fetch up to $60 000 (R790 000) a kg on the black market, exceeding the price of gold or cocaine.
They are composed mainly of keratin, the same component as in human nails, and are sold in powdered form as a supposed cure for cancer and other diseases – as well as a purported aphrodisiac – in Vietnam and China.
SA has over 300 private rhino breeders who say they have spent more than R2 billion to protect their herds over the past nine years. Hume and some other campaigners say poaching can be halted only by meeting the huge demand from Asia through legally “harvesting” horn from anaesthetised live rhinos. – AFP