Rhino Poaching - Hartzview Hunting Safaris

Good day guys,

It is a very sad day as we had to move all our rhino of our main area to several different areas the past weekend. THe reason for moving all our rhino is because of poaching. In the last 3weeks we had 9 rhino shot on our area of which 6 is dead with their horns removed and 3 were heavily wounded of which one bull died last night. Unfortunately this made for another conservation effort to be stopped in its tracks as nobody will be able to handle the losses financially and emotionally.

I found one of the rhino on Thursday by seeing fresh blood croosing road near a waterhole. I got out and started tracking the blood where after about 35 yeards saw a running rhino track. Tracked another 400 yards on where I found the dead cow with 2 AK47 shots on the shoulder. Horns were not removed as I think I probably scared the poachers as the blood trail and rhino were still fresh! Glad they did not shoot at me!

We immediattely decided to move all rhino of Hartzhoogte. When we started flying to dart the rest of the rhino we found the other 5 carcasses. We also found the wounded rhinos when we started darting them for the move. We are still missing two calfes, the cows have been killed by the poachers.

I added some pictures of some of the rhinos we found. I felt that I should share this with our fellow hunters as we are all conservationists and that you guys need to know this kind of really bad news aswell!

Best regards,

Jacques

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Here is a young bull that has been shot 6 times with a small caliber. We are hoping that he will survive!


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These were both pregnant cows!

Hi Jacques

This is very sad news I have a friend who is going through the same ordeal, all the best of luck and I hope that these poachers get what they deserve a long time spent in a prison sell!

Best Regards
Louis van Bergen

I am real sorry for your losses and hope you catch the poachers, the losses may come out of your pocket but hurts us all as hunters and Conservationist.

Very sorry indeed to hear the bad news but guys, what needs to be done is to cut the head off the snake by catching the guys at the top of the industry and that won't be easy because most of them have diplomatic immunity and we all need to put pressure on our respective Governments to withdraw that immunity in the case of rhino and/or elephant product trade.

Catching or even shooting the actual poachers won't achieve anything at all because Africa is full of people willing to take an AK in their hands if they can earn enough money in one night to feed their families for a year.

that just sucks jacques
i hope these a*****es get caught doing this crap and get theyre noses cut off
it makes me sick in the guts that it continues to happen all the bloody time
im truley sorry for your lose
these rhinos definately need all the friends they can get

Absolutely horrific !!!! When will the idiots realise the only way is to legalise the horn trade ! This is a very big loss and sad day for everybody ! Words cannot describe this despicable acts !

Originally Posted by shakari

Very sorry indeed to hear the bad news but guys, what needs to be done is to cut the head off the snake by catching the guys at the top of the industry and that won't be easy because most of them have diplomatic immunity and we all need to put pressure on our respective Governments to withdraw that immunity in the case of rhino and/or elephant product trade.

Catching or even shooting the actual poachers won't achieve anything at all because Africa is full of people willing to take an AK in their hands if they can earn enough money in one night to feed their families for a year.

shame to hear that jacques. it might be satisfying to shoot them and is a start, but as you say there is a never ending flood waiting to take their place. unfortunately i cant see the immunity etc being withdrawn for the people running it, as i have a feeling they will be too well connected, or their govnts are providing "assistance" to the country which certain ministers and govnt officials wont want to lose.

So sorry to hear this bad news.Just be careful as people who do things like this can do the same to people if pushed.I hope you catch them and they get to look threw bars for along time.I feel bad for all the people who get to see your ranch now and dont get to see rhinos now.Was one of the great parts of our trip when there to see them just roaming around.I still remember taking the pic of dakota and the springbuck with the big rhino walking behind you guys that came out of no where.Hope the wouned ones make it and you find those two young ones.Good luck Billc

Sad ugly news, yet again.

Glad that you made it away safe.

A great loss...

As mentioned we need to find the top of the hill to try and stem the tide...

Very sorry to hear about this Jaques. Good that you didn't get hurt!

Sad news indeed, sorry for your loss. As others have mentioned, glad you didn't get hurt/killed.

Sorry to hear the bad news, Jacques, take care.

Again, so sorry for your losses...please be careful. We all want them caught, but you are important to all of us also. Your friend GSTONE

Sorry to hear that you are having problems. One of the great things about hunting with you was seeing the Rhinos. I remember the first morning that we were at the ranch, a Rhino came in and grazed on the lawn. He got within one metre of me before he realized I was there. Best of luck my friend.Attachment 14582Attachment 14583 Stay safe.

Crap, what a crunmmy thing to have to deal with. Sorry to hear the news!

Terrible thing to deal with Jacques. I think everyone here on AH are feeling some of your pain

I read Jacques' post earlier today and had a number of reactions. Excuse me if some this comes across as a bit of a rant, it's really not intended that way, just kind of thinking out loud.

1. Jacques, sorry to hear this like the others. You had a breeding herd of rhinos that of course were there at your expense as I don't think any revenue was being generated. It's sad to see that this area of rhino restoration will be no more.

2. Personal disappointment, I was really looking forward to my son seeing rhinos outside of a zoo.

3. With all of the rhino poaching we've been hearing about in Africa as a whole, not just this instance, where is the outrage from the anti/non-hunting crowd? I hear plenty about the big cats and certainly that has it's merit. I guess since the poaching is taking place on hunting preserves they don't want to publicize it.

.......pause in my dissertation to go kill a frickin' scorpion in the garage.........caused me to think a bit and do a google, and I'll be durned, Jacques you made the news in the USA on a very liberal left wing website no less:

Poachers dehorn 14 rhinos in South Africa, 3 die

But this leads to another thought that I've had trouble putting all together, so bear with me. Basically is it not high time that the antis/non-hunting bunny hugger crowd suck up their broken hearts and put up with the South African (as well as other nations) hunting safari industry? To realize that while we will still have our differences, we still have the common goal of wanting to see Africa's wildlife not only survive but also to thrive?

If that's the case, then is it not also time for hunters to be unified? Over the last year or so, I have read so many threads, not on AH but in other places, just bashing the hell out of South African high fence hunting. Well here we have a SA operator running a high fence operation, but also was providing the ground for an apparently growing herd of rhinos? So what good does it do for those rhinos when members of the hunting community trash on one of our own?

It just seems to me that we need to be much more unified before we could ever hope to work towards common goals with those who we find to be our opponents. Sorry if this comes across as a rant, hopefully it didn't.

Originally Posted by PHOENIX PHIL

I read Jacques' post earlier today and had a number of reactions. Excuse me if some this comes across as a bit of a rant, it's really not intended that way, just kind of thinking out loud.

1. Jacques, sorry to hear this like the others. You had a breeding herd of rhinos that of course were there at your expense as I don't think any revenue was being generated. It's sad to see that this area of rhino restoration will be no more.

2. Personal disappointment, I was really looking forward to my son seeing rhinos outside of a zoo.

3. With all of the rhino poaching we've been hearing about in Africa as a whole, not just this instance, where is the outrage from the anti/non-hunting crowd? I hear plenty about the big cats and certainly that has it's merit. I guess since the poaching is taking place on hunting preserves they don't want to publicize it.

.......pause in my dissertation to go kill a frickin' scorpion in the garage.........caused me to think a bit and do a google, and I'll be durned, Jacques you made the news in the USA on a very liberal left wing website no less:

Poachers dehorn 14 rhinos in South Africa, 3 die

But this leads to another thought that I've had trouble putting all together, so bear with me. Basically is it not high time that the antis/non-hunting bunny hugger crowd suck up their broken hearts and put up with the South African (as well as other nations) hunting safari industry? To realize that while we will still have our differences, we still have the common goal of wanting to see Africa's wildlife not only survive but also to thrive?

If that's the case, then is it not also time for hunters to be unified? Over the last year or so, I have read so many threads, not on AH but in other places, just bashing the hell out of South African high fence hunting. Well here we have a SA operator running a high fence operation, but also was providing the ground for an apparently growing herd of rhinos? So what good does it do for those rhinos when members of the hunting community trash on one of our own?

It just seems to me that we need to be much more unified before we could ever hope to work towards common goals with those who we find to be our opponents. Sorry if this comes across as a rant, hopefully it didn't.

Could not agree more ! Well said !

SCI Convention in Reno on the 23rd of January might be the place to carry this discussion forward, and see if we can get others involved in this issue...with AH, of course, leading the discussion. Your thoughts on this?