{"id":7829,"date":"2012-02-10T01:51:40","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T23:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/02\/bungled-conservation-effort-kills-s-african-rhino\/"},"modified":"2012-02-10T01:51:40","modified_gmt":"2012-02-09T23:51:40","slug":"bungled-conservation-effort-kills-s-african-rhino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/bungled-conservation-effort-kills-s-african-rhino\/","title":{"rendered":"Bungled conservation effort kills S. African rhino"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG<\/span> Feb 9 (Reuters) &#8211; A group of animal<br \/>\nconservationists in South Africa accidentally killed a<br \/>\nrhinoceros they were attempting to make safe from poachers in a<br \/>\nbotched public relations event.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Spencer the rhino went into convulsions and died after he<br \/>\nwas shot with a tranquiliser dart in front of a crush of TV<br \/>\ncameras and photographers who had been invited to document an<br \/>\noperation to insert a poison capsule into his horn.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Conservationists from the Rhino Rescue Project said sedating<br \/>\nrhinos with darts was a tricky business that sometimes went awry<br \/>\nand rejected suggestions that the poison capsule had caused<br \/>\nSpencer&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rhino had an unfortunate reaction to the anaesthesia,&#8221;<br \/>\nRhino Rescue Project spokeswoman Lorinda Hern said. &#8220;Every time<br \/>\nyou dart a rhino, you take a risk that the rhino might not wake<br \/>\nup and unfortunately today was one of those days.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Conservation groups insert poison capsules into the horns of<br \/>\nrhinos, which release poison into the horn when it is removed<br \/>\nfrom the animal and are meant to render the horn value-less for<br \/>\nhunters seeking to sell it on for use in traditional medicine.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Conservation groups have inserted poison into the horns of<br \/>\nrhinos or removed their horns in an effort to deter poachers.<br \/>\nBoth procedures require rhinos to be sedated.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A record 448 rhinos were killed by poachers last year in<br \/>\nSouth Africa, home to the greatest number of the animals. Rising<br \/>\ndemand in Asia for their horns has led to an increase in illegal<br \/>\nhunting.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A decade ago South Africa, with more than 20,000 rhinos, was<br \/>\nlosing about 15 animals a year to poachers. But poaching has<br \/>\nincreased dramatically since about 2007 as the spread of wealth<br \/>\nin places like Vietnam and Thailand has enabled more people to<br \/>\nbuy rhino horn, which scientists say has no real medicinal uses.\t<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Reuters Television, editing by<br \/>\nPaul Casciato)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHANNESBURG Feb 9 (Reuters) &#8211; A group of animal conservationists in South Africa accidentally killed a rhinoceros they were attempting to make safe from poachers in a botched public relations event. Spencer the rhino went into convulsions and died after he was shot with a tranquiliser dart in front of a crush of TV cameras [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}