S African rhino rustlers tackled using satellite horn implants

People never cease to amaze me

Some impotent moron is willing to pay thousands of dollars for a rhino horn when top quality viagra is available now at pharmacy beating prices. At least, so my spam box tells me. Repeatedly.

Pas vrai

"Powdered rhino horn is much in demand in the Far East, where it is considered an aid to a gentleman's boudoir prowess"

Come on, I think you'll find even Wikipedia has sussed that's a just a common fallacy. Or don't your hacks watch QI?

Off with their horns!

The poachers that is, of course.

On the other hand...

Anyone care to predict how long it is before the "perissodactyl poachers" (nice one) are guided to their prey by the implanted device?

Missing background

I really couldn't care what some misguided twat is purchasing the powdered horn for.

I do think it was a little sloppy to omit the important and rather sad background this development takes against though.

There has been a massive and alarming increase in rhino poaching in South Africa this year. According to the WWF there were 470 rhino poached across Africa between 2006 and 2009. 200 rhino were poached in South Africa to mid-October this year. The big anti-poaching success story of the year -the arrest of 11 people in late September - came with it's own distressing aspect: two of those arrested were vets.

GPS.

The first Rhino that tries to walk out of the reserve is going to get the surprise of its life when it hears: "Make a U-Turn if possible" coming from its own nose.....

I prefer the poisoning of the horn.... far more effective

As mnetioned in the title, I think it id far better to poison the horn. Ideally with something really evil and nasty, to make the suffering of the person taking it in really long and painful.

Having lived in southern Africa for many years, I despise those who kill this beautiful animal just because of its horn.

If there were plenty of them (flame war here I come....) like for instance elephants which occasionally have to be shot for population control (this depends on where this is done, as there are grave differences in the population sizes depending on the area)

what would even be better, would be a little explosive devise that goes of the moment the heartbeat of the animal can't be measured any more.

Well anything, that would eradicate these bastards who kill these animals for virtually nothing....

When I lived in souther Africa, it was really cool with poachers:

Usually no money was wasted on expensive trials, plenty where caught, but they rarely re-offended.... (if you get my drift)

this may sound rather radical, but I know that those of you who have lived in southern Africa, and know and understand the culture, will agree, this was the best solution.... and even today I am all for it.

Trials are way to long, thereby expensive, sentences are way too lenient, and highly ineffective.

I have lived in Saudi Arabia for about five years (many years back) and I am far from being a sharia-supporter, but over there the owner of a jewellery shop was able to leave his shop unlocked (open actually) and go of for a cup of tea or coffee for half an hour without being worries that his store was empty. I can't see this happening anywhere here....

If you were caught steeling, they would take off your hand....

Can't be using Garmin or MapQuest

Using a late model Garmin GPS unit in conjunction with Mapquest I, allegedly, DROVE 1,800 kilometres around 10-15 kilometres out to sea.

Obviously these rustler hunters must be using more reliable hardware and software that cost me USD$700.