While I agree that the poachers need to be executed on site, the transporters, and ultimately the people buying these products, also need to be held accountable. Every person found in possession of a horn or animal product should lose everything they have - since only wealthy persons can afford them, that would be as strong deterrent to any purchasers.

I think they need to launch a MASSIVE, in-your-face educational campaign in all parts of Asia to PROVE that elephant tusk and rhino horn is USELESS for any human purpose (except maybe a back-scratcher). Make it SO obvious that anyone still paying big bucks for those things looks like a complete fool. Portray buyers of ivory and rhino horn as brainless idiots, and maybe they'll stop buying it, just to save face.

I had no idea that we even had 35,000 elephants left. I wonder how many we have as of now in the wild. They can't take to many more years like this one. Such a shame. If I were to see one in the wild I would be awe struck, The last thing on my mind would be to kill it.

I seriously doubt there was anything close to that number killed by poachers. There are lots of elephants though. In the Tana region for example, over 600 elephants were culled last year because they were over-populated and destroying their own habitat. Many of the National Parks do the same although I cannot say how many. But the story here says only, "we believe that up to 35,000 were killed". To me they are exaggerating the numbers to draw attention. Still, whoever is killing them illegally should be punished.

BTW - An "in your face campaign" would be laughed at in Asia. They simply could not care less what we think.

The fact is we should offer 2000 for the buyer, and 100 for each finger of the poachers.

I remember watching a documentary years ago where the park ranger did just that. He found a poachers camp (on a preserve) and set up an ambush. The poacher came back and he shot him. The guy filming it was shocked but the ranger just left him there.

Nothing new! It is not racisim! These are pouchers! The do not kill for sport, or for food. They will not use the meat after they kill the elephant, but will leave it to rot! they serve no useful purpose to society and they will kill themselves, any game warden( Which , for your info are mostly Balck) or tourist that gets between them and thier prey! As a Hunter, I despise them, as for the Comment by "Frail one" your an idiot. Let me guess, you typed that on your iPad while drinking your Double Latte from starbucks! Quit blame those of us that have worked hard for what we have in life. Check your facts! Of the 800 peaple in the united states that qualify as Millionares, only 2% inherited thier money! The rest worked hard and earned it by sweat and toil. Try it sometime, you might find a real person in you!

I would love to see those doing the slaughtering get slaughterd themselves.

HOLY SH!!!T Elysee,

I cannot believe there are people on this planet like you. You are worse than the poachers in this story. I know your little brain cannot comprehend what you just typed so I might excuse you for being mentally retarded, but there is no place for you in this world as I see it. Asians are not the only one buying ivory. There are many other ethnic groups in the world supporting this black market. Might want to look into your own backyard too. Jeez some people.

That was just ghastly! in that video that rhino was trying to get up while it was bleeding to death from having its horn cut off! I think I have a solution: The poachers and buyers should have their eye teeth and noses and hands chopped off. They should lose all of their money and resourses and that would go to the animal preserve to help protect the animals that are left.

It shouldnt be that hard to find ppl willing to perform such attrocities on another, aparently they exist.

Then those without eyeteeth and noses and hands can see how long they can survive without those things.

I hope u stupid poachers have an interrnet so u can see how badly people want to see you skinned, outside of china, nobody cares about your precious voodoo animal parts soup that makes it ok for u to terrorize animals all over the world.

Sooner or later, somebody will see you skinned. And probably your owner too. Lofty goals, lofty goals.

Put a bounty on the heads of both the poachers and the brokers. That will show them what it is to be hunted and killed.

Why are we outraged about this killing yet millions of domesticated animals are killed on your demand? I fail to see the difference. No doubt the killing of these elephants is horrific, sad, and tragic. However, I fail to find it anymore tragic than all the other animals you kill.

The brokers and buyers should be executed; the poachers are simply ignorant natives trying to make a buck.

How about that same bounty on the Asians who covet ivory chopsticks or rhino horn for the phony cure for cancer. It's obscene how little they value preserving these animals for the next generation. I say death penalty for brokers of these items. I'll happily flip the switch on them.

Thinkaboutit - the demand for ivory for chopsticks is what is driving the market in poached goods. The belief that rhino horn cures cancer (and possibly impotence) in China and Vietnam is the reason these animals will be extinct in our lifetime.

Due to the amount of corruption in these countries I strongly suspect that government officials are involved. It is not only the elephants and rhinos, but the rest of the wild life for bush meat. At some point there won't be any more then what will this human trash do for survival? Africa as the cradle of the human race, makes you wonder, why haven't they learned anything over the millennium.

Think about it-2012248: You accuse Elysee of being mentally retarded? You are the idiot here. It is traditional Asian medicine that is the consumer here. Mostly old ignorant Asian men who can't get it up any more. A few other that heard that it cures cancer. The only good thing there is that they will die.

The poachers are supplying a demand. Personally, I'd like them shot on site and have all their property confiscated. But the real criminals here are those creating the demand. Shooting is to good for these idiotic superstitious old fools. They obviously have to much money. No fines, just take it all. They families can live in shame on the streets. And, then cut off a few of their appendages.

We try to save endangered Wildlife, and the Africans, other Poachers are destroying their Wildlife, especially the helpless Elephants. It's a money game for the Ivory.

Now there is a Wildlife "War" to be started. There are circumstances Americans have; compassion and care about other species.

PETA, what are YOU going to do? Sometimes Humans and Nature are at odds with each other. It is out of others control. Sad, but true.

Tribal acts and thinking cannot be "cured", by any of the Enviormentalists who want to save the world, and it's creatures.

now i understand why they couldn't find bin laden. they can't keep track of "up" to 35k elephants being poached and sold.I don't think they are looking high enough.

The solution to the problem of both elephant populations and poaching has already been discovered and proven to be quite effective. People just don't like to hear it because it is counter-intuitive and pisses off the bleeding hearts. The answer quite simply is to allow them to be hunted legally. In countries where this is allowed, and strictly controlled of course, the elephant populations are booming; in countries where it is still illegal they are being wiped out by poachers. Elephants seem so mighty and majestic to those of us who don't have them literally in our back yards, tearing down fences and destroying crops. To the people who deal with this they are little more than a dangerous nuisance. By allowing the hunting of elephants they go from being a nuisance to a source of revenue. People who once looked the other way when poachers came now vigorously protect the elephants from them. The elephant population in Botswana has more than doubled since sport hunting was reintroduced in the mid 90's. This in turn has resulted in an increase in non-hunting elephant tourism giving locals yet another reason to protect them.

I am all for a bounty for the head (detatched of course) of ANY neanderthal brained ape that would kill an elephant for any reason other than in a case of a suffering animal.

@elysee

Your suggestion that Chinese and Asians are to be blamed for the poachers action is tantamount to say the drug users are blamed for the making of illegal drugs and their distribution.

By your logic not only the drug makers and traffickers to be prosecuted, so are the drug users. You know very well that drug users do not get prosecuted.

Africa is a failed continent. Since the end of colonial rule, it was only down despite the billions of investment and aid. The reason is out-of-control breeding. The mouths scream to be fed, so anything that is food or can be sold to buy food is targeted for being hunted down, chopped down, or dug up. They can be understood, because no one is thinking about tomorrow when the necessity is to get fed today.

The only way to put paid to that is to restore colonial administration, maybe this time under UN, and institute strict, draconian, China-like birth control. When men fathering more children than allowed are subject to surgical sterilization (and no, not a reversible vasectomy), and it is strictly enforced, the birth rate will soon fall to sustainable numbers.

Only if you can find all the poachers' pieces! :P

I wonder if the tusks could be painted with something to render them worthless or perhaps micro-chipped to allow game wardens to locate poachers.

I think micro-chipping is a great idea. That way they can find the poachers and the evil perverted bastards who want to collect something that harms another living creature. They should be using their money to help preserve life - not destroy it.

Microchips are not 'transmitters'. If you wave a reader over them they supply information, nothing more.

Paint the tusk with something highly toxic that will kill anything that consumes even the slightest amount.

Why not a preemptive strike. Sedate all the elephants and cut off all their tusks.

Not sure what would work with the rhinos.

M@CAmom

I wonder if the tusks could be painted with something to render them worthless or perhaps micro-chipped to allow game wardens to locate poachers.

They are doing something similiar with rhinos. Posioning the horn to make it usless for "medicinal" purposes.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/2011/09/15/return-toxic-avenger-rhino-advocate-poisoning-horns-poachers/

The Chinese/South Asians will do to the world what they did to their own countries. Kill off every animal worth having. They eat slimy crap from the out of the muck at the bottom of polluted creeks because they killed off all the clean animals and fish many generations ago. Black bears in the US are being poached by "Bubbas" who sell the gall bladder to the Asians. Africans are poaching their own animals to extinction for a little cash so they can give the small valuable parts to the Asians and Muslims who like to decorate themsleves with horn handled knives. Same Africans require Europeans and N Americans to come and dig wells and latrines for them. There's no tmuch hope such folks are going to get the more esoteric concepts as environmental complexity and interconnectedness of a healthy eco system. It's a very hard concept for the more advanced societies as they continue to pollute themselves into medical disasters. The affluent people are filling the air worldwide with carbon as they travel for small thrills. Same carbon is wiping out many more animals and fish then the thousand elephants the Africans shot. So the animals are doomed.

I agree with IReadyou,I thought the Asian folks were smarter then the West! They are slaughtering whats left of the Exotic animal species to make their little ding-dong peckers harder! never heard of Viagra or Cialis? China puts a new coal fired electric plant on line every two weeks and The US citizens have to pay a carbon emission tax? Thats ok if China and India abide by the same rules! lets all try to buy a little $ 40,000 electric coal fired car, that may help

It's PETA. Pita is a type of bread.

PITA is much more useful.

Pita makes a good elephant's ear sandwich. Use plenty of horseradish. Kidding! I'm kidding!

The human race is what has kept wildlife thriving on the planet. Would you have preferred that T-Rex's be left in charge and you stayed nothing more than an amoeba? Be gratefull for the life you have and quit bemoaning the lesser attributes of our species. Just because wildlife organizations that rake in billions of dollars a year crying the same old "sky is falling" for this species or that does not mean it is so. Usually it's a bunch of BS. There are upwards of 500,000+ elephants on the planet, and in some African countries, their numbers are the highest in history. They are NOT endangered any more than lions or polar bears, but their numbers do need to be managed by someone other than PETA. Just because a bunch of people, usually poor, illiterate one's, kill a bunch of elephants in one of the smallest countries in Africa (Cameroon) DOESN'T mean they are being SLAUGHTERED in mass. Controlling poaching is also easier said then done - any of you ever been to Africa or Asia - I have. We can't even control poaching in the USA and you think it's as easy as putting up a few drones in a country with 1000 times the jungle and savanna - NOT. What NEEDS to be done is extremely strong consequences established by home countries for poachers AND their families AND military operations in parks and areas where poaching is getting out of control or where species ARE being threatened - like the wild Rhino. Read WILD, and NOT those that are being managed on private preserves to help off-set the economic stress that grow poachers to begin with. In addition, economic consequences of a significant nature, and not just more BS talk, need to be enacted against countries that reward trafficing in poached game parts - like Saudi Arabia, China and Vietnam, but THAT will also be hard since when has ANY country threatened it's own economic stability over animal welfare? Never!

@ JP-345 Wildlife has not thrived because of the human race. Human beings have in fact exploited wildlife It is a very small select few that have tried to protect and educate and unfortunatly the nut case organizations ( PETA) have garnered all the headlines. Actually nature and T Rex would have done a much better job managing the planet. T Rex and his brethren did fine for 250 million years and had it not been for a cosmic event ( Read Meteor and Chicxulub) the dinosuars would still be running things. Modern man has been around for only 125,000 years +/- and has survived on brain pans and a HUGE amount of luck ( Our cards fell between ice ages ) The human being has done more damage in the last 150 years then any other species throughtout the 4.6 billion year history of the planet...PERIOD. And its not just killing a bunch of elephants as in africa they kill one (1)million pounds of bush meat daily. If the rest of the earths population ate as well as well do in america it would take 2 and 1/2 earths to feed them.

I'm no bleeding heart and love a steak but if we dont get a handle and reduce the population then the day will come when we are all eating corn meal paste, boiling what water we can find and living back in mud huts. The truth is in the numbers, .........250 million years vs 125,000.

I dont think anyone would dispute that humans will be lucky to survive even another 50,000 years before earth hacks up that hair ball and cries Mulligan !

Actually I correct myself.........I'll give humans maybe another 200 years at the rate were going.

Weary,you do realize that without *some* human intervention multiple animal species would be wiped off the planet,right?
And that we're one of the few animals to actually be able to care and protect entire species?

Or are you one of those nut cases who hates humans yet thrives off human achievements?

@NomNom not a nutcase here and my opinions are based ( due to my background)on pure science and historical fact. I dont make excuses for human failings but do see the train coming. The human intervention you speak of is as I said before, by very small select groups that do great work while the nut case organizations get all the press.

If you truly believe that mankind has not done more damage then any other species in the planets history then I would say your in denial or have decided to ignore the truth. Regardless I find it hard to believe that the majority of those untainted by politics or religion can continue to deny that unchecked, we and the planet are in the fast lane on a grim road.

Hey nomnom

if humans weren't here, how would we know about species survival, and would it matter to us? :)

We can't let this come to a "Noah's Ark" And there would never be any "Relocating" these animals back to their native Continent because man will be there waiting for them once again. ONLY SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM OF POACHING IS SHOOT TO KILL. PERIOD.

@Lindy-2521568

Game farms in Tx are one of the few self sustaining ventures that exist to help preserve some of these animals

Sadly the animal rights wackos have set their cross hairs on these game preserves in Texas and have forced a ban on the hunting of several species which are all ready or near extinction in Africa. With no incentive to keep up the populations of these species they will likely go the way of the dodo. That's the problem with many so-called "conservation" groups, they'd rather see the species go extinct than allow a few people to hunt them.

Correction:

Change "(2) Isn't it interfering socialism..." to "(2) Isn't stopping this slaughter just interfering socialism...".