#Rhinos
#EndangeredSpecies
#Conservation
#Poaching
Reposted from Wildlife News:
Net closes on the Groenewalds as rhino poaching reaches 899
Kevin Heath / 1 day ago
As the net closes in on the Groenewalds and their safari company Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris the South African government has announced that the latest rhino poaching stats for the country stands at 899. With just 10 weeks left in 2014 the number is set to beat last years record 1004 rhinos killed for their horn.
Yesterday the Groenewald brothers
http://wildlifenews.co.uk/2014/safari-company-charged-in-us-with-illegal-hunting-and-rhino-horn-trading/ were charged in the United States with a range of indictments including fraud and selling illegal rhino hunts to US hunters and also the illegal trade in rhino horns.
The brothers have a long history of dubious rhino hunts with claims that they have worked with land grabbers in Zimbabwe to take hunters into the country on illegal big game hunts including rhino hunting. This was despite being banned from operating in Zimbabwe in 2004.
Dawie Groenewald is also set to face the courts in South Africa next year with 10 other accused including professional hunters, guides and vets following an operation by the South African specialist wildlife police the Hawks. In September 2010 the Hawks broke up a major rhino poaching syndicate http://wildlifenews.co.uk/2011/call-to-action-to-protect-rhinos-in-south-africa/ in the country and following a search of Groenewald’s ranch the police discovered 20 bodies of rhinos buried in the grounds. The horns had been removed from the animals.
The trial of that operation is set to begin in South Africa in August 2015.
The South African government in the release of the latest rhino stats make note of the charges against the Groenewalds in the United States. The Department of Environmental Affairs have said they will monitor the case closely as the South African trial becomes closer.
In the South African trial Dawie Groenewald and his 10 co-accused faces 1872 charges including racketeering, the illegal trade in rhino horns, fraud, corruption, assault and the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
The Department of Environmental Affairs also congratulated the South African Police and Hawks after a series of success joint operations over the last week which saw 14 poachers being arrested in a weekend at the Kruger National Park.
“The success of the joint operations undertaken by the SAPS and SANParks is an example of the commitment of South Africa’s police and rangers to work together to eliminate rhino poaching from our country,” said the Department.
Latest rhino poaching statistics:
South Africa 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
KNP (SANParks) 146 252 425 606 581
MNP (SANParks) 0 6 3 3 0
MAP (SANParks) 0 0 0 0 1
Gauteng (GP) 15 9 1 8 3
Limpopo (LP) 52 74 59 114 109
Mpumalanga (Mp) 17 31 28 92 57
North West (NW) 57 21 77 87 53
Eastern Cape (EC) 4 11 7 5 14
Free State (FS) 3 4 0 4 4
Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) 38 34 66 85 74
Western Cape (WC) 0 6 2 0 1
Northern Cape (NC) 1 0 0 0 2
Total 333 448 668 1004 899
#Rhinos
#EndangeredSpecies
#Conservation
#Poaching
Reposted from Wildlife News:
Safari company charged in US with illegal hunting and rhino horn trading
Kevin Heath / 2 days ago
The United States continues with its never-ending task of holding back wildlife crime and poaching of endangered animals by charging the owners of Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris with a host of violations. Charges include breaches of the Lacey Act, money laundering, fraud and trafficking of rhino horn.
Dawie Groenewald, 46, and his brother, Janneman Groenewald, 44, both South African nationals, and their company Valinor Trading CC (d/b/a Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris) http://wildlifenews.co.uk/2011/call-to-action-to-protect-rhinos-in-south-africa/ have been indicted by the federal government and charges include:
conspiracy,
Lacey Act violations,
mail fraud,
money laundering and
structuring bank deposits to avoid reporting requirements.
The charges were announced yesterday by Sam Hirsch Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division; George L. Beck, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama; and Dan Ashe, Director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
The charges reveal that the Groenewald brothers http://wildlifenews.co.uk/2010/zimbabwe-wildlife-pays-price-continuing-unrest/ used to tour gun shows and hunting clubs in the United States selling rhino hunting tours on their ranch in South Africa. They would falsely claim that the rhinos which were to be shot by clients were ‘problem rhino’., This would allow the hunters to legally kill the rhino and be photographed with them. The hunters would be able to record the killings but were prevented from importing any trophy back into the United States.
The reality was that the rhino which were set aside to be killed by clients were not ‘problem rhino’ and the company had not permit from the South African government to kill the animals. Not only that but the brothers then removed some of the rhino horns and sold them on the black market.
The 18 charges that the brothers face involve 11 sample hunts that took place on their ranch in Mussina, South Africa. Those hunts were valued at between $3,500 and $11,000 each.
The brothers have been charged by US authorities because at the time of the hunts – between 2005 and 2010 – Janneman Groenewald lived in Autauga County, Alabama where the Out of Africa company also held their bank accounts.
Details of the hunts disclosed in the papers filed at court makes disturbing reading. Inm one hunt the client attempted to kill the rhino using a bow. After repeated strikes by arrows the rhino finally had to be shot with a gun to end the pain and suffering.
In another hunt it was described how Dawie Groenewald used a chainsaw to remove a horn from a sedated rhino to sell on the black market.
“We are literally fighting for the survival of a species today. In that fight, we will do all we can to prosecute those who traffic in rhino horns and sell rhino hunts to Americans in violation of foreign law,” said Sam Hirsch, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This case should send a warning shot to outfitters and hunters that the sale of illegal hunts in the U.S. will be vigorously prosecuted regardless of where the hunt takes place.”
“These defendants tricked, lied and defrauded American citizens in order to profit from these illegal rhinoceros hunts,” stated U.S. Attorney Beck. “Not only did they break South African laws, but they laundered their ill-gotten gains through our banks here in Alabama. We will not allow United States’ citizens to be used as a tool to destroy a species that is virtually harmless to people or other animals.”
“The fact that defendants used American hunters to execute this scheme is appalling – but not as appalling as the brutal tactics they employed to kill eleven critically endangered wild rhinos,” said FWS Director Ashe. “South Africa has worked extraordinarily hard to protect its wild rhino population, using trophy hunts as a key management tool. The illegal ‘hunts’ perpetrated by these criminals undermine that work and the reputation of responsible hunters everywhere.”
The investigation of Out of Africa is part of Operation Crash (named for the term “crash” which describes a herd of rhinoceros), an ongoing nation-wide effort to detect, deter and prosecute those engaged in the illegal killing of rhinoceros and the unlawful trafficking of rhinoceros horns led by the Special Investigations Unit of the Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Thus far there have been 26 arrests and 18 convictions with prison terms as high as 70 months.
Throughout the course of the investigation on the current charges, U.S. authorities received substantial cooperation from South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority and a specialized endangered species unit within the organized crime unit of the South African Police Service. That unit is known as the Hawks.
Additional assistance has been provided in this case by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, in Montgomery, Alabama and the Autauga County, Alabama Sheriff’s Office.
The Out of Africa case is being prosecuted in the Middle District of Alabama by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon K. Essig and by Richard A. Udell, Senior Litigation Counsel with the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The Out of Africa investigation is continuing.
Photo credit: Rhinos are killed for their horns, which are made of the same stuff as fingernails. Credit: Karl Stromayer / USFWS http://www.fws.gov/
No comments:
Post a Comment