COURT CALENDAR
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1993:
Crimes against wildlife
Hong Kong authorities confiscat-
ed $20,000 worth of rhinoceros horn in a
series of late October raids on apothecaries,
following leads provided by the London-based
Environmental Investigation Agency. But the
raids may have come too late to save rhinos in
the wild, as fewer than six remain in protect-
ed areas of Zimbabwe, according to wildlife
veterinarian Dr. Michael Kock, who could
find only two in a two-week aerial search.
There were 3,000 when Zimbabwe achieved
native sovereignty in 1980. Kock sawed the
horns off about 300 rhinos a year ago, trying
to make them worthless to poachers, but dis-
covered that even the nub left behind after
dehorning will fetch $2,400 U.S. Kock says
he has evidence that the Asian poaching car-
tels are actively trying to “kill every rhino,”
because, “If they eliminate the rhino, the value
of the horn will skyrocket. They can sit on a
stockpile for 10 years; they know there is
always going to be a market.”