Forewords

ALL TRADE IS BASED ON SUPPLY AND DEMAND. When there is a demand there will always be a supply. Prohibition in the USA, the global drugs trade, and human trafficking, etc., all had, and have, massive and sophisticated police resources deployed against them, but the supply has continued and often increased.

The trade in wildlife and animal body parts is no different. Rhino horn, ivory, shark fins, and others continue to be harvested legally and illegally to satisfy an ever growing demand. The lessons of history indicate that we will not save Earth’s wildlife by trying to regulate or stop supply. The only thing that will ultimately prove effective is to regulate demand.

The conservation of our wild fauna and flora rests on a highly complex set of issues. However, for many animal species the demand comes from a limited part of the world, and to a large degree from one country within that area – China. If conservation NGOs, CITES, the IUCN and others turned their attention to stopping demand, rather than tinkering with supply, their efforts would be more effective. Humans have always hunted wild animals and eaten parts of them. However, the difference today is that many of these species face extinction, and often consumption is based on ancient beliefs, reinforced by spurious medical claims. This mistaken belief and the fact that targeted species may now face extinction in the wild constitute powerful arguments; the global conservation community should deploy them in Southeast Asia to stop the demand.

JACQUI PEIRCE

HACKING BODY PARTS OFF LIVING ANIMALS for calculated financial gain places humans in a behavioural class on their own at the bottom of the pile.

Every year millions of sharks have their fins cut off while they’re still alive, rhinos are darted and immobilised while their horns are hacked off, bears have catheters inserted into their gall bladders to remove bile, and the list goes on …

In 2013, 1,004 rhinos were poached in South Africa, and I have often heard the struggle against poaching referred to as a war. The rangers, park wardens, police and military fighting the poachers cannot win the war as long as the value of rhino horn is so high that people are prepared to risk their lives to acquire it. What makes the war even more uneven is that the poachers can make the rules up as they go along, while those on the other side have to play by the book.

Rhinos have been on our planet for around 50 million years; by comparison, humans have been on Earth for 10 minutes. If humans continue to live unsustainably, then perhaps they will wipe themselves out before they succeed in eliminating the rhino, which may just be around in another 50 million years, long after humans have disappeared!

The Poacher’s Moon is the story of rhino poaching on three game farms in South Africa’s Western Cape. It is my tribute to those who fight to safeguard the targeted, vulnerable species on our planet, and to Higgins and Lady – two rhinos that have survived the slaughter to see another dawn.

RICHARD PEIRCE