|
Poachers’ Poison
| Date: |
05 June 2005 12:00 |
| Producer: |
Ingwe Productions
|
| Show: | Carte Blanche |
It literally means to drink water. Nwanedi is the name given to this national park in northern Limpopo province, less than fifty kilometres from the Zimbabwe border. With over nine thousand hectares of bushveld, it supports a wide variety of game.
John Webb (Carte Blanche presenter): 'It has to be said that it's nothing short of a privilege to be able to be in the bush and watching as wild animals come down to drink. But in early May this year the eyes that were watching a particular water hole in this reserve weren't admiring the tranquil scenes, instead they were filled with greed.'
Their target: One of fifteen white rhinos that roam this reserve.
Johan Strauss (Eco ranger): ' Rhino horn is on average [of] about R8 000 maybe plus per kilogram on the black market.'
Poacher: 'He said rhino can make you become rich.'
This exclusive footage of a poacher's account unfolds a grim tale. Lured by this promise of wealth, he and two others hatched a deadly plot.
It began on a weekend in late April when they crept into Nwanedi reserve to scout the watering holes for prey. But their plan wasn't to shoot a rhino; instead, they slipped back through the fence and broke into a farm shed.
Poacher: 'We took Temik poison. We got it from my father's farm.'
Temik is the brand name for the pesticide Aldicarb, used extensively by farmers to eradicate crop-destroying worms. Armed with this poison, the three entered the park again on Saturday the seventh of May and headed for a watering hole just eight kilometres from the reserve's lodge.
Poacher: 'We poured that poison around the fountain, then we walked away and I said, 'No that poison is maybe... that poison is too weak'.'
But Aldicarb is extremely toxic. Dubbed 'Two step', after a couple of paces the victim dies. Less than a teaspoonful will kill a man; four grams will kill a rhino. The poachers used about five hundred grams.
Poacher: 'While I was there, [there] were birds and frogs, there was one bird that drink that water and died immediately.'
Early on Sunday morning they returned to the watering hole... It was a scene of slaughter. More than fifty animals lay strewn three hundred and sixty degrees around the watering hole. Dozens of birds and baboons died alongside large game.
Chiron -
10 Nyalas
3 Wildebeest
2 Zebra
3 Impala
7 Warthog
5 White rhino
While their sights were set on one rhino, their poison had killed five. It was the first time in his life that the young poacher had seen a rhino, now he was helping to cut off its horns.
Poacher: 'Then there was another rhino next to the fountain. We start to cut the horns of that rhino.'
But afraid of being discovered and shocked by their own handiwork, they fled with just two horns, leaving the scene and an unprecedented mark of notoriety.
John: 'This is the largest single poaching case on the Limpopo police records. It is also estimated that the value of the animals lost is around R2m.'
Karen Trendler (Wildcare): 'It's always been domestic animals, it's always been birds, it's always been smaller animals... and to hear it's been used on large game, and the numbers that had happened was very concerning.'
And Karen Trendler of Wildcare echoes the concern felt throughout the conservation community. Dedicated to saving orphaned and injured wildlife, she is a specialist in rhino rehabilitation.
Karen: 'And the fact that this has stepped up to rhino, and to five rhino, is very concerning because it might be the start of a new sort of wave of poaching[s] of this nature.'
On Tuesday the 10th May, while news of this disturbing incident began filtering out, the three poachers left for Johannesburg to meet with their buyer.
Poacher: 'The white guy said 'No I will pay you twenty five thousand for this horn. But I particularly don't like a wet one. I like a dry one'. And said I've got many dry ones at home.''
But the buyer accepted the horns anyway and the poachers went to a house in the north east of the city to await payment. But the money never materialised.
Poacher: 'He just took our horns and ran away.'
And their luck just got worse. In a joint effort, the police and rangers from nature conservation set up a task team to hunt them down.
Inspector Gordon Brummer (SAPS Endangered Species Investigations): 'We took about ten days following up information and then afterwards we got them.'
But, while two suspects are behind bars, the real work may just be beginning for Inspector Gordon Brummer who is heading up the investigation.
John: 'If these two guys were the foot soldiers, if they were the inexperienced pawns, who are the people calling the shots?'
Gordon: 'Sometimes it will be run by syndicates and sometimes it will just be a once off or something like that.'
And, with the possibility of syndicate involvement, the prospect of a repeat of this form of poaching is daunting. Even hardened members of the anti-poaching unit that responded to this incident were shocked.
Johan Strauss: ' Well, when we got there it was horrifying. It was probably the worst sight I've seen in my life.'
Johan Strauss and Mark Watson are members of Eco Rangers, a private company contracted by the Limpopo Nature Conservation to control poaching. Johan was one of the first on the scene.
Johan: 'On the initial approach on the small row there were three rhino lying and then a lot of baboons. As we walked away from the water, warthog, jackal, predators lay dead where they fed on the corpses. They've moved about ten fifteen meters and they've also died. It's really horrific. It was really a bad sight.'
John: 'And you've probably seen the work of poachers over several years?'
Johan: 'Normally you'll get maybe one rhino that is poached and that's a huge incident and that itself is horrific.'
One of the five dead rhino was lactating - probably spelling doom for her baby left to fend for itself.
Johan: 'That really goes down right into your spine and give[s] you the shivers.'
John: ' Mark, do you remember having similar feelings of outrage when you saw the scene?'
Mark Watson (Eco Ranger): 'Absolutely. It was horrific and it's a terrible way for the animals to die.'
Dr Robin Jones (marketing manager for Bayer): 'I'm sure the animal suffers, yes.'
Dr Robin Jones, marketing manager for Bayer, which produces Aldicarb under the brand name Temik, says that although it has not been conclusively proved, it's likely that their product was used. He explains how Aldicarb attacks a mammal's central nervous system.
Dr Jones: 'It will vomit. It will have diarrhoea. It will lose control of its bodily functions. As it gets more severe, muscle tremors develop. The animal goes into a state of huge excitement nervously and ultimately some of the vital bodily organs will be affected and, if the dose is sufficiently high, the animal will die from the poisoning.'
Belying the trauma, this baboon appeared to be resting... until one takes a closer look.
Gordon: 'If you're not used to it, to see dead animals or something like that, then I think you'll have a problem afterwards.'
In the clean-up operation one of the first tasks was to burn all the carcasses to prevent more scavengers from being poisoned. The water was pumped out of the hole and the wet spots were burned with diesel.
Johan: 'We've closed the water hole. It's actually a fountain and we've relayed the fountain away about 100 metres so that the new water is not contaminated by the soil itself.'
John: 'This is all that remains at the scene of the crime. What was once a pristine watering hole has been filled with sand, but the fact is that the deadly poison that the poachers used can remain in the ground water for several years.'
But Bayers says that Aldicarb will not move much more than a metre into the soil and maintains that in Africa it's not very typical to have ground water that close to the surface.
Dr Jones: 'We would be satisfied that, for instance, [that] if a crop was grown in that soil a hundred days after Aldicarb was placed there, that you would not detect Aldicarb in that crop.'
John: 'As far as you're aware now, the scene of this particular incident has now been secured and dealt with and there is no danger of other animals being poisoned?'
Gordon: ' Everything is covered up and everything is okay now.'
At one stage Aldicarb was taken off the market, but because it's such an effective insecticide. pressure from the agricultural sector saw it being reintroduced. Today, it's said to be carefully regulated, but it often comes into the country illegally and is brazenly sold on the street.
Illegal possession of Aldicarb carries a maximum jail sentence of six years. But it's on record as having been widely used to kill rats, by criminals to poison dogs in house-break-ins and in suicides and murder.
Dr Jones: 'I am certainly concerned about the extent of the misuse of our product.'
And although the distribution of Aldicarb is meant to be stringently controlled, there are those calling for a review of its availability, if not an outright ban.
Dr Jones: 'I find it regrettable that it is the product that is being blamed. In this particular [incidence] it was people who used the product to poach animals.'
Karen: ' The answer is not to take that particular poison off the market. There are a number of products that could be used if they wanted to poach the rhino. The question is, is there enough security for our wildlife? What's to stop this from happening again?'
John: 'Could it end up being a widespread issue?'
Gordon: 'We're quite concerned about that. It's a problem, because it's easy. The people from the Parks Board or anybody... they don't hear shots fired from a rifle, so that's going to be a big problem.'
But if that's the case, what about the future of the ten rhinos remaining in Nwanedi National Park?
Karen: 'The ideal thing would be for these rhinos to be captured and relocated to a much safer area. There are certainly areas where it could be done.'
John: 'Gordon, are you saying that because poaching is so widespread at this particular time, there are young people like these two suspects who are seeing some people making money out of it and are getting into it themselves?'
Gordon: 'Ja, they see it, a lot of guys. There is a lot of smuggling in that area, illegal hunting, everything. So they see a lot of people gaining from this.'
And the easier the methods of poaching appear, the more desperate people will be lured into making a quick buck, despite the risks.
Poacher: 'Because I want to be free...I want my life. I don't want to destroy my future. I know I made a lot of mistakes...I know. But I'm still young.'
John: 'But what do you think should happen to the two suspects?'
Johan: 'Life sentence... minimum.'
John: 'Do you think that will send out a clear message?'
Johan: 'Yes, obviously that will send out a clear message, because you can't get closer to murder than that. If this poison [don't] get controlled by government very serious and very fast, we're going to end up with a lot of dead animals in protected areas.'
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
|