Day 467: Just Kill All the Rhinos

http://www.news24.com/Green/News/Rhino-killings-surpass-800-for-2013-20131107

Cape Town – A rhino focus group announced on Wednesday that the number of illegally killed rhinos in South Africa for 2013 has reached 825.

Annamiticus reports that 500 of the 825 have been gunned down in the Kruger National Park adding that between 1 January and 13 March 15.36 rhinos were killed each week in the country.

Rhino killings have increased dramatically in recent years due to the demand for horns from the asian black market. In 2007 only 13 incidents were reported. - News24


Would it not be kinder to kill all the remaining rhinos (and other animals targeted by human cruelty/greed/just plain stupidity) in a humane manner (haha humane - as if humaneness is a trait commonly linked to humans)? How many animals are dying slow and agonizingly painful deaths to feed one or another desire we have? How many animals die to satisfy our egos? How many animals die because we stubbornly refuse to implement measures to prevent this from happening - measures that will address the cause of the problems as opposed to just treating the symptoms?

If we continue believing that the stickers we buy and the sms's we send to "support the fight against Rhino poaching" (and other animal cruelty/destruction causes) will stop people from wanting Rhino horns - by feeding their families, stopping their superstitious beliefs that the horns will magically cure their ailments and such - then the poaching will just continue. These actions against animals are taken for specific reasons - adding more game rangers and building higher fences do not address these reasons. If we continue with our current course of action the only Rhinos that will survive will be the ones locked in cages in zoos, living with an equal measure of misery as the ones dying slowly in a ditch.

I drove past a grazing Rhino and her calf the other day and wandered how long those two would still be alive. Will my children, if I have children in the future, ever get the opportunity to see animals like the Rhino in the wild, in their natural habitats?

The only difference between us quickly and efficiently killing all the Rhinos right now and carrying on in our delusion that what we have been doing will make poaching extinct instead of the Rhinos is that killing them all now will save them from being hacked, torn apart and left to die.

So, I propose that we start a new charitable organization: Save the Rhinos by Killing them all. We could do one organization for each endangered animal.

Let's face it - we're deluding ourselves by thinking that the animal
s will win over our greed and relentless destruction of their living environments and bodies. If we continue this way then there simply will not be any wild animals left - profit is more important than giving other living beings the opportunity to live the way they have always lived, without our interference.

Maybe not everyone is aware of the extent to which wild animals are killed for simply "interfering" with human activities: leopards and other predators like the jackal are hunted and poisoned for killing our livestock - even though it turns out that it isn't them most of the time. Countless species are simply starving to death (predator birds like eagles and owls, orangutangs) because of habitat destruction. No one even knows how many sea and water-dwelling creatures have been poisoned and overfished - did you know that the "nuclear countries" did a lot of nuclear bomb tests in the oceans? Take a look.

In 50 years our planet will be a toxic mass unable to support life. Hopefully we'll have killed off the animals so that they do not have to suffer from our actions any more than they have to.

It is time to stop the madness. Get real, people - it is time for solutions - not band aids.

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