Poaching

Poaching is when people want what animals have like a rhino’s horn or an elephant’s tusks.  

So starting with elephants.  In Tanzania 67 elephants are killed a day.  So in one year 24,455 elephants pass away in Tanzania thanks to poachers.  So such big nice animals are killed just for some ivory and ivory is only used for ornaments, jewellery, piano keys but 67 elephants a day there’s not enough to just go shoot. 

Just like blood diamonds people forced children to find diamonds and they used those to buy weapons.  With elephants now in some places its blood ivory not blood diamonds.  

But that’s not as bad as the rhinos.  Their horns are worth a fortune.  In Vietnam they make medicine and use that to cure illness.  To stop this people have started poisoning the horns so the rhinos aren’t affected but the people that take it die.

Now the horns of a rhino are the same as your toenails.  A lot of people in Africa sent their toenails to the Vietnamese embassy.  But people that shoot them get about 50,000 Pula / Rand which is a lot of African money.  People have to get into the parks by air so some people are kind of addicted to killing elephants and rhinos which is pretty stupid.

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I would do anything to save rhinos and I’m pretty sure my sister Meg would do the same for the elephants.  In a few years rhinos might be extinct but rhino parks and nature reserves will keep rhinos safe I’m sure they will do all they can to keep the rhino species around.