Rhino Killers
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- 2 min read
The Dehorning War in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi
Never forget...
Savage attacks by rhino killers in 2024 saw over seventy-eight rhinos slaughtered during and after mass dehornings at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, totaling 198 killed for their horns that year.
A global collaboration between WWF, Save the Rhino, and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife aimed to curb the horrific slaughter of rhinos in 2023, when over three hundred rhinos died in the park.
Publicity preceding and during the “event” sent killer syndicates into a bloody feeding frenzy, and attacks by armed syndicates were brutal during the first month of dehorning.
The trauma of the teams present during the chainsaw operations, racing against the clock trying to save the rhinos while killers worked within the park, is unimaginable - and for what was to come later in the year.
Imagine the fear of the rhino.
What is the memory of those rhinos that are alive today?
They were originally tracked, darted, blindfolded with cloths covering their eyes - chainsaws buzzing, sawing, removing their horns.
Did those rhinos realize?
What did they think?
“I am different now. It took a while to adapt. I can’t protect myself against predators. I can’t defend myself at all. I am defenseless. I can’t fight. I can’t protect my calf. I feel weak, confused, and insecure.”
Some of those dehorned rhinos, after all they endured, were later tracked by killers in a syndicate payback. These rhinos lost their lives and had their stubby little horns hacked off.
The hands are always the same - they are human. Some try to save you; others come to hack your face off.
When will we see the rhino wild, free, safe, their horns majestic spears poking out the bush into the sky...
Like we did as kids...
Barefoot in the camps, hanging out the windows of our Chevrolets.
These rhinos we see now - they look nervous.
Waiting to have their horns hacked off.
To be saved or to die...
Keep the guns in the hands of rangers.
Keep the horns on our rhinos.
Support dedicated intelligence.
Stop Asia from stealing our heritage.
Rhino killings in Hluhluwe dropped in 2025 by 68%, to a reported total of 63.
The syndicate killers returned to Kruger, racing to strike wherever the horns begin to grow - a dark river flowing between Hluhluwe and Kruger.
These killers - they wait.
They strike.Again and again.
© LionExpose
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