Save Our Rhino
– Vanina Harel
I strongly believe that the rhino is one of the most incredible creatures on earth. It is not a very pretty or elegant creature at first sight. However, it only took me a week of observing them in their natural habitat to find out how easy it is to get attached to them.
First of all, a rhino calf is the cutest baby animal. It is so playful and happy around its mum and siblings, I could watch them for hours. Although extremely curious by nature, it stays close to its beloved mother. Any baby is endearing, but a young rhino is so adorable that the sight of it is like a ray of sun in a dark room. It will come towards you to investigate who you are and what you are doing. It will try to chew some grass to mimic its mum, even though it cannot really digest it yet. It will soon become a large and impressive animal, while, at heart, remains one of the most loving and gentle.
Rhinos irradiate a wonderful feeling of calmness, particularly when they are peacefully walking across the grass plains at sunset. It seems to me that they just enjoy every day for what it is, every bit of grass for what it tastes, and every nap for how much satisfaction and comfort it can give. They look like happy big animals that are incredibly trusting and forgiving, and unfortunately this is a huge disadvantage to them today.
How heartbreaking it is to imagine that in only five years there may not be baby rhino running around and pretending to charge its big brothers anymore. I cannot accept that humans can be so cruel and greedy, that they make such a fantastic creature suffer so much.
After spending only one week with a group of rhinos and filming them, I already feel a connection. I would be absolutely devastated to hear that one of them had been butchered for its horn. Can we just close our eyes on this reality and ignore that this is happening today, in Africa, to more than two rhinos every day? Of course we can. It is easy enough to say that we come from a different country, which has other problems, and therefore we cannot worry about everyone else’s issues. Alternatively, to simply think that others will take care of it, as there are always some crazy “green” people who want to save the planet.
The matter is: can you really be insensitive to this cruel reality, to this horrendous suffering of an animal that cannot defend himself in any way? Can you possibly imagine this adorable one-month-old baby rhino, witnessing its mum getting shot, crying, and screaming for help, while attempting to charge poachers to get them away from her until its own exhaustion? Can you really ignore the fact that 461 rhinos have been butchered, shot, chopped up in inhumane ways already this year?
The facts are clear and real. They are easy to ignore, and yet it doesn’t take much from us to acknowledge them and make a difference. It is no use if we just close our eyes and wait for someone else to solve the crisis. Can you really admit that you don’t care? Can you just turn to the world and to the next generations and say: “Our rhinos today are getting butchered, they are soon going to be extinct. This is a reality and it is driven by the non-scientifically proven belief that rhino horn has medicinal benefits. I understand and acknowledge this statement and decide not to care about it.” We will not have any more rhinos on our planet for what seems to be a ludicrous reason! Can we just see it happen and not do anything about it?
Personally, I can’t. I want my children to be able to enjoy the sight of a happy baby rhino running around its mum. I want to see the world as a peaceful place where we don’t have to fight to survive. There are enough fights and battles to go through. Human beings are so blinded by their greed that they stop feeling with their heart. Rhinos are alive, they have a heart, they feel pain and fear, just like us.
We cannot let them get decimated just because they cannot defend themselves. And how could they? How could a huge herbivore hide in a grass plain from a helicopter and poachers coming to shoot it with rifles? It goes against all essential rights. It would be like coming to a village in a helicopter and shooting innocent civilians. It is terrorism!
It is unacceptable and we all agree on this. So let us now speak now in one voice and stand up against this international crime. Let us educate the people who are consumers of the rhino horn so they can feel how we feel about this horrific situation. It not just saddening, but appalling to know that some people will kill anything, in any way, just for profit. Is that what life is about? How to be the richest person? How to show that you have more money? Is that what defines happiness?
Happiness cannot be bought, and it is clear to me that life brings happiness, not death, nor suffering, nor crime. It is so heart-warming to watch this baby rhino grow up and discover the world. I wish that this world can be a peaceful one, where it can feel loved and safe, because that is what happiness is about. Love and safety are all we need, and that cannot be replaced.
I hope to have brought to light a situation that is currently happening and that we either don’t know about, or choose to ignore. But the point is, if we ignore it today there will be no tomorrow for the rhinos. This is a war worth fighting for; it is a battle we cannot lose.
If you want to donate now, please do so at www.stoprhinopoaching.com/donate.aspx.