MINISTER MOLEWA AND SANPARKS, THE WORLD CALLS ON YOU TO PROTECT OUR REMAINING RHINOS.

KINDLY SIGN and SHARE THIS URGENT PETITION!!!

REVERSE THE DECISION TO SEND 260 OF KRUGER NATIONAL PARK'S RHINOS TO HUNTING SAFARI COMPANIES AND PRIORITISE ENSURING THEIR SAFETY FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF THE WORLD. WE CARE AND WE ARE WATCHING!!

South African authorities have announced a plan to evacuate up to 500 rhino from Kruger National Park to safer areas where they are less likely to fall prey to poachers hunting them for their horns.

Illegal rhino killings in Kruger have soared in recent years, up from 13 in 2007 to 1,004 in 2013 despite the deployment of soldiers throughout the vast nature reserve to protect them.

More than 630 rhinos had been killed in South Africa so far this year – 408 of them in Kruger.

According to the Department of Environmental Affairs the purpose of the “evacuation” of rhinos is to move them to safer areas due to the escalating poaching crisis in the Kruger National Park (KNP) and the inability to contain this onslaught. However, when the above information is taken into account, many questions arise when one looks at the destinations they are allegedly being moved to. Is SANParks able to guarantee the safety of these animals after they have been sold and what benefit will they have to conservation if they are going to be shot and killed by hunters? Are there any guarantees supplied by the purchasers that these animals will not be hunted and will they maintain sufficient security on the premises to protect these animals from poachers? Will any offspring be returned to supplement KNP’s meta- population? If these rhinos are being moved to so-called “safer” locations surely there must be some sort of guarantee in place that they will indeed be kept safe and alive? If so then this would exclude the hunting of these animals, or else they may as well remain where they are under the protection of SANParks and other government security forces in the park. It is alleged that on one of these reserves, a 54 000 hectare farm there are only six “game scouts” none of which are trained or equipped to do anti-poaching. In the past when SANParks disposed of rhinos they were either sold on auction or went out on tender. According the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 “movable state assets may be disposed of at market related value or by tender or auction, whichever is most advantageous to the state, unless determined otherwise by the relevant treasury.