Rhino war is being lost

SIR — This week the latest rhino poaching statistics were released: 227 so far this year. Just over 60% of these were in the Kruger National Park.

One still has to wonder why a state of emergency has not been declared in the park. One also has to wonder why hunting permits are still issued for rhino and why they are still allowed to be sold on auction when nobody has any idea how many we have left in the wild. Surely good sense would dictate a moratorium be placed on all these activities until an independent census (long overdue) is conducted.

The war is being lost in the boardrooms and it is clearly time for some decisive action. Tourism numbers are down. How long before there are job losses in the tourism sector? Can our economy sustain such job losses?

You might say that the plight of the rhino is not important in relation to poverty, education, housing etc. These issues are also vitally important and seemingly under-addressed. However, without the rhino we can no longer boast about the big five. The big five is a huge draw card and we certainly need the foreign exchange that this generates in order to boost our economy.

It is also time to realise this is organised crime and should be treated as such.

The issue is raised overseas in the media, even in the US Senate, but we are still waiting to hear our government — meant to be the custodian of these animals — shout “enough”.