He left his fortune there: after 30 years of fighting poaching, South African rhinoceros defender John Hume is throwing in the towel and is auctioning the world’s largest breeding of the endangered species this week.
“I have nothing left, apart from 2,000 rhinos and 8,000 hectares of land” who are looking for a buyer, laughs the 81-year-old white breeder, eyeglasses and plaid shirt, during an interview with AFP .
South Africa is home to almost 80% of the world’s rhino population.
But the country has become a hotspot for poaching, fueled by demand from Asia where the horns are used in traditional medicine, for alleged therapeutic and aphrodisiac effects.
Last year, nearly 450 rhinos were killed there.
Barely less than the previous year, according to the government, despite drastic anti-poaching measures put in place in national parks such as Kruger Park.
The horn thieves, whose price per kilo on the black market rivals the price of gold, reaching 60,000 dollars, have adapted their strategy and are now attacking the most vulnerable private parks.
John Hume estimates that over the years he has spent 150 million dollars on his ambitious project to save the large land mammals he fell in love with by chance: retired and with the dream of running a farm, he bought his first specimen.
“For the rhinos, it was completely worth it,” he says without regret. “There are many more rhinos on earth than when I started the project.”
But “I spent the savings of a life trying for 30 years to save this population. And there, I ran out of money”, explains the ex-businessman who had made his fortune in tourism .
On his farm less than 200 km southwest of Johannesburg, some 2,000 white rhinos are protected like marvels: miles of fences, cameras, heat detectors and an army of guards. A hundred people work on the site.
In the control room, the head of security has one objective: to show poachers that “they don’t stand a chance here”. But “we are only diverting them, knowing full well that they will target other more accessible reserves where the risk/loot ratio is to their advantage”, admits Brandon Jones.
The details of the security system and the number of often armed “rangers” are kept secret.
But 24-hour surveillance is the biggest expense.
“Maybe someone for whom five million dollars a year is pocket money” will take over, hopes John Hume.
In his gruff tone, he says he wants to believe that on Wednesday, when the online auction is launched, a “billionaire would rather save the rhinos from extinction than buy a super yacht”. Bidding opens at ten million dollars.
Everything will leave in a single batch, the animals, the land, the machines and, also negotiable, the stock of ten tons of rhinoceros horns.
One of the strategies to fight against the massacre is to preemptively cut the coveted horns composed of simple keratin, like human fingernails.
According to Mr. Hume, these horns cut by veterinarians and without risk for the life of the animal should be used, by their sale on a legal market, to finance the conservation of the species.
In South Africa, domestic trade in rhino horn is permitted although controversial, but export is illegal.
“I have the solution. But the rest of the world and the NGOs do not agree and we are losing the war”, regrets John Hume, furious. And “unfortunately, on the black market, the horn of a dead rhinoceros is always worth more than a living rhinoceros”.
24/04/2023 08:38:51 – Johannesburg (AFP) © 2023 AFP
