More than 250 children commemorated the hundreds of rhino that have been poached in South Africa in recent years at a Rhino Awareness Day on Monday, at St Andrew's Preparatory School.
More than 250 children commemorated the hundreds of rhino that have been poached in South Africa in recent years at a Rhino Awareness Day on Monday, at St Andrew's Preparatory School.
Along the verges of Cradock Road, opposite the school, 893 small crosses were respectfully placed to mark the 893 rhino poached in the country since 2010. Sadly, the figure exceeds that, which is a shocking thought.
Prep principal, Gareth Allman explained that each cross represented a poached rhino and that the rows of crosses represented the killing fields in our country where they live, but are no longer safe.
Following the tragic death of the second of Kariega’s three rhino that had their horns brutally hacked off in early March, Dr William Fowlds, a wildlife veterinarian and old Prep pupil shared his passion for the great, grey living dinosaurs that he fights to preserve.
Video clips, statistics and gruesome photographs of Kariega’s de-horned rhino struggling to survive brought sombreness to the schoolboys as they listened in silence.
According to Fowlds, 80% of the planet’s rhino population live within the borders of South Africa, and the incidents of poaching since January have escalated sharply to completely outstrip figures in previous years.
“In spite of more arrests and more anti-poaching training and deployment, we are currently losing this battle,” Fowlds said. “We need to do more. We cannot be the generation that is responsible for the rhino’s extinction. It is simply not an option.”
