Please ensure that the ban on the rhino horn trade remains in place without exceptions and is effectively enforced. A legalization would result in a massacre of rhinos comparable to the mass killings of elephants after the ivory trade was permitted in 2008. Legalization would play into the hands of the international criminal organizations behind poaching. The plan of the South African government to legalize the trade in rhino horn is a slap in the face of everyone who is dedicated to the survival of the species. Rhinos – like other animals suffering at the hands of poachers – are close to the hearts of people the world over. For many years, governments in Africa and beyond, international organizations and environmentalists from around the world have been working to stop the slaughter. Poachers in South Africa are killing rhinoceroses at a rate that will lead to their extinction in the near future. Call on the government in Pretoria and the member countries of the CITES convention to protect rhinos instead of becoming accessories to their extinction. It’s not too late to put an stop to South Africa’s plan. The decisive conference will take place in Cape Town in 2016. To set up a legal rhino horn market, South Africa will need to get the other member states of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on board. Asians who may have shunned illegal horn in the past would have no such reservations once it is freely available. The legalization would also fuel demand for rhino horn. Poachers are highly adaptable: as the legalization of the ivory trade has shown, they could then bribe officials monitoring the trade for a convenient way to launder poached horn. Legalizing the trade in rhino horn would only play into the hands of organized crime and drive the rhino’s impending extinction. When South Africa and three other African countries briefly legalized the trade in ivory in 2008, poachers went on a rampage. History has shown the unintended consequences of this idea. Alternatively, the horns could be "harvested" from live rhinos. Trade would be limited to the horns of animals that died of natural causes. In theory, a controlled legal market could cause the price of rhino horn to plummet and make poaching unviable. South Africa hopes that legalization will undermine the crime syndicates behind poaching. And yet the government wants to legalize trade in rhino horns – essentially issuing an invitation to poachers. If this continues, rhinos could soon be extinct in the wild. In South Africa in 2014, more than 1,200 were poached, up from 13 in 2007. Poachers are killing rhinos in unprecedented numbers. Experience has shown that this will not curb poaching, but could trigger a massacre.” To: the governments of the Republic of South Africa and member countries of the CITES convention
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