Entire breeding herd of rhinos shot and killed in horrific scenes on South Africa game reserve

Warning: contains distressing images ++++ Rhinos shot in 'sensless' killings had already had their valuable horns removed to try and save them from poachers
One of the rhinos was found clinging on to life but later died as vets battled to save its life
Jamie Pyatt25 October 2017

An entire breeding herd of rhinos has been shot and killed in horrific scenes in South Africa.

The rhinos were almost valueless to poachers as their horns had already been removed, but they were shot and killed anyway in two separate attacks after they were tracked down on a game reserve.

Their distraught owner said he had spent years building up the herd of three males and two females and they were all at the stage to mate.

But two senseless attacks in a three weeks at Wildschutsberg Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape wiped them out.

The rhinos had already had their safely horns removed in a bid to put off poachers

Owner Greg Harvey said: “It is just madness. I had five rhinos of breeding age and they are gone in the blink of an eye. My entire rhino population wiped out.

“Four rhinos were dehorned as a counter-poaching measure earlier this year leaving only little stumps of horn so it was an absolutely pointless slaughter.

“They still cut out the small bits that remained but would have got very little” he said.

The five rhinos were killed in two separate attacks over the last three weeks

The poachers first struck earlier this month when they shot two male rhinos dead. On Sunday they shot a female and a young male dead and wounded one female.

Mr Harvey and a team of vets spent most of the day trying to save the female which still had her horn but sadly were unable to save her and she died in front of them.

It is suspected that a syndicate targeted the reserve using inside information as the existence of the herd was a closely kept secret and the animals were constantly on the move.

In 2014 Mr Harvey had two breeding rhino bulls shot dead by high powered hunting rifles and took the decision to build a new breeding herd which carried no horns.

But the poachers nevertheless shot them all dead and fled with little of value and the police Endangered Species Unit has been called in along with trackers to try and find them.

The two bulls killed earlier this month were about 10 years of age and shot in broad daylight.

Mr Harvey said: “I got a panicked call saying it looks like there had been a poaching so I launched the helicopter and spotted two rhinos dead 300m apart in the bush.

“Unfortunately attempts to track and locate the poachers failed.

“In the latest attack three rhinos – two females aged about 8 and 15 and a four year old male where shot. A staff member spotted them on the floor in the distance.

“It was only when I got there in the helicopter we saw one was still alive and got the vet out but unfortunately she succumbed to her injuries and died,” he said.

Mr Harvey said he suspected a member of staff gave information to the poachers.

He said: “These rhinos are roaming all day and night so no one knows where they are. The only way you would know where to look would be with inside information”.

The furious game park boss has ordered all his staff to undertake a lie detector test.

Police in the South African province said they were investigating.

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