South African Rhino breeder detained amid smuggling
South African prosecutors have accused a high-profile animal breeder of running an illegal rhino horn smuggling network worldwide.The 83 -year -old John Hume once owned one of the world’s largest Rhino herds in his farm near Johannesburg. He and five others are accused of running a plan to export more than 900 Rhino Horns, priced at $ 14.1 million (€ 12.2 million).Special Hawks Unit of the police said that all the five arrested on Tuesday after “complex investigation in transnational trafficking of Rhino Horns”.South Africa’s Environment Minister Donon George stated that the investigation was “a powerful performance of a powerful performance to protect South Africa’s natural heritage.”Rhino horns smuggled with false permitsZimbabwean-born Hume owned a 7,800-hectare (19,270 acres) platinum rhino range in the northwest province of South Africa by 2023, when it was purchased by wildlife NGO African parks to reopen animals.The farm is a home of about 2,000 animals, which is about 15% of the world’s remaining wild population of southern white rhinoceros.Investigators said that they highlighted fraud by involving government officials, who had issued permits for 964 Rhino Horns, which were to be sold domestically, but who were actually sent to illegal markets in Southeast Asia.The South African law allows domestic trade of Rhino horns. But foreign sales have been banned under the conference on international trade in endangered species of wild organisms and flora.Rhinoons were abundant in Africa once, but have fallen into numbers dramatically due to massive hunting and poaching. Along with Ivory, Rhino Horns is highly sought as position symbols in Asia and for their alleged sexual qualities.
