Rescuers save pair of baby rhinos after their mothers are shot by poachers

The rhino is likely to go extinct within the next decarde or so.

A pair of baby rhinos have been rescued by conservationists after their mothers were shot in separate poaching incidents. The two babies were observed wandering together.

Organized poaching gangs slaughter about two dozen rhinos per week across South Africa. The rhino population is now down to about 20,000 individuals. At the present rate of poaching, the rhino will be extinct in about fifteen to twenty years.

Poachers have become brazen, even to the point of killing animals in sanctuaries and zoos.

They are driven by demand for rhino horn which is believed to have medicinal properties in some cultures. The horns are ground into powder and turned into alleged remedies that can cure diseases and fight sexual impotency.

Despite efforts which include the military, there seems to be little anyone can do to protect these animals. There are simply too many people seeking to cash in on the rhino's horn. Poachers are willing to take extreme risks to earn life-changing amounts of money for themselves and their families.

In so doing, these poachers rob their country, their children, and the world of their natural birthright. Consuming everything now rather than managing their natural wealth for the future.

Certainly, there are ways to manage the population of rhinos to generate even more money than imagined without driving the creatures extinct. But such management requires work and effort and skill, and it is easier to kill and make quick cash.

In time, the rhino will be followed by the lion, and the elephant, and many other majestic creatures. The humans will remain, and they will still suffer, but their natural resources will have been squandered, condemning future generations to poverty.

There is no good news, no silver lining, unless people return to their responsibility to love God, one another, and their planet.

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