DR IAN PLAYER CALLS FOR RHINO HORN TRADE DEBATE

The Endangered Rhino
(Photo : Land Rover)

"INGWAZI HONOUR GUEST IN THE NEWS"

Sunday, the 3rd July is a big day in the histories of Hartford House and the Land of Legends. We are honouring the Premier of KZN, Dr Zweli Mkhize and Dr Ian Player, the latter of whom is remembered as the saviour or the world's rhino populations. The tireless Ian Player was in the news again this week:

Fifty years after spearheading an international drive to save the white rhino from extinction, world-renowned wildlife conservationist Ian Player has set the cat among the pigeons by calling for an urgent national debate on whether to legalise the controlled trading of rhino horns.

Player - one of the central figures in the 1960's Zululand battle to save the world's last remaining white rhinos from extinction - suggested that re-opening legal trade in horns might be the only way to save the continent’s rhinos from the recent "catastrophic" wave of illegal rhino poaching by syndicates.

"Make no mistake, we are up against some very dark forces which threaten to overwhelm us," he told business people at an anti-poaching fundraiser in Durban Tuesday.

Noting that powdered rhino horn had been used in Oriental traditional medicine for several thousand years, the 84-year-old wildlife ambassador said: "Nothing is going to stop the deep-seated belief systems in the Far East. So we need to debate in all possible forums the merits and demerits of selling these horns legally… In the end, it may be the only way to save the rhino."

Extract from The Mercury