Conservation Dogs, De-horning and Rhinos
Meet Shinga, pictured above. Shinga is an anti-poaching dog, trained by Dogs4Wildlife, who are actually based in beautiful Wales. She is a beautiful Belgian Mallinois, who knows how and when to bite, and has trained in tracking a scent; recently she chased a poacher 4.5 km to his home and barked furiously outside his door, so that rangers knew where to find him! Clever girl, Shinga!
Dogs4Wildlife are a very experienced team of knowledgeable trainers, who are committed to wildlife conservation. They have 15 dogs working across 4 Southern African countries to help reduce poaching numbers.
Their dogs are truly amazing, full of courage and loyalty, speed and with a really good nose for sniffing out danger to wildlife. But nonetheless, poaching is rife and wildlife continues to be killed by poachers.
Dogs4Wildlife work to provide training, support and technical help to conservation initiatives which are involved in wildlife protection. You can find out more about them here.
Their work includes the training, supporting and establishment of anti-poaching units; and of course education to the wider public is important too.
De-horning is controversial...
Most recently, Dogs4Wildlife reported the devastating news that 22 year old bull rhino Gomo had been brutally killed at the Irmire Reserve. This is terrible news, especially for the rangers and everyone who have devoted their lives to protecting the animals there. Gomo’s horns were hacked off with an axe for the horn.
Dehorning is a controversial topic, but as the poaching continues, many conservationists are turning towards dehorning rhinos to make them ‘less valuable’ to poachers and to make sure they survive. The horn grows back over time so the process will need to be repeated.
Dogs4Wildlife say the process of de-horning gives time to stabilise the populations as other ways to stop these terrible deaths are put into place, such as education, reduced demand and stricter laws.
Of course, there is still a need for security, with armed patrols, surveillance drones and community involvement, and the process works better in smaller environments than huge national parks.
Dogs4Wildlife are desperately needing to raise £1,200 for a rhino dehorning this August. They will be out in the field in South Africa then. Poaching is rife and the rangers need all the help they can get – as do Dogs4Wildlife conservation dogs Shina and Murwi.
The £1,200 covers the following:
A helicopter and a pilot – rhinos are usually darted from a helicopter, although sometimes they are tranquilised from the ground
The horn is removed very precisely under anaesthesia and the stump that remains is trimmed, smothered and covered with Stockholm tar so that it doesn’t crack and dry
On the ground support
Veterinary care from the whole team
Anti-poaching support.
Hopefully de-horning will be a temporary way to help prevent wildlife crime and the death of so many rhinos. If anything, it shows how desperate things are.
There are ways you and I can help:
We can donate towards de-horning
We can sponsor a conservation dog such as Shinga
We can adopt an endangered white rhino
We can spread the word about the work Dogs4Wildlife are doing.
Image at top of page is of the beautiful Shinga, copyright Dogs4Wildlife. Stay safe, Shinga darling xx
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