A farm in Limpopo is the scene of the latest rhino atrocity.

An armed gang of eight to ten men tied up two workers at a Limpopo farm located between Modimolle and Vaalwater, and then proceeded to kill two rhinos and saw off their horns.

This shocking attack reportedly occurred in broad daylight on Monday afternoon.

The Independent Online quoted police spokesperson Ronel Otto, who earlier spoke with an SABC broadcaster.

Between eight to ten suspects, armed, arrived on the farm this afternoon.

They then overpowered two workers on the farm, a man and a woman in their 40s. They then tied them up and threatened them with firearms and went to a special enclosure where the rhinos are kept.

And they shot and they killed two rhinos and they cut off their horns and fled.

According to the website Stop Rhino Poaching, which provides a running total of rhinos killed in southern Africa, at least 182 rhinos have been slaughtered so far in 2010.

Killing rhinos for traditional medicines in China and Vietnam

Recent research by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC revealed that most rhino horn leaving southern Africa is destined for consumer markets in China and Vietnam. Rhino horn is obtained illegally from poached rhinos and quasi-legally after being laundered via South African trophy hunts.

Rhino horn has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for decades, and prescribed for a wide range of ailments, including fever, anxiety, and boils. Practitioners have also advised rhino horn for keeping the devil away. Within the last five years, Vietnam has emerged as another significant destination for illegal rhino horn from South Africa, with rhino horn being sold online and in retail shops.

However, any supposed “healing benefit” derived from rhino horn is nothing more than an unfortunate myth. Rhino horn has been extensively tested and analyzed, and has been found to contain no medical properties whatsoever.

Sources: Independent Online; Stop Rhino Poaching website

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. Besides writing Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, I am the author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, the Editor of Project Pangolin, and a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

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