Will return of rhino horn trade to South Africa reduce deadly poaching?

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South African millionaire John Hume launched the world’s first online auction of rhino horns last month – which he says aims to help save the endangered animal from slaughter.

He organized the auction after winning a court battle to sell his stockpile of rhino horns to customers in South Africa only.

Critics have said he is encouraging an unethical and deadly trade outside the country. But Hume argued that a legal trade in rhino horns is the only way to save the creature from poachers.

Hume raised suspicions after creating webpages for the auction in both Vietnamese and Chinese.

Photo via CGTN America

But that may be nothing more than targeted marketing.

According to wildlife NGO Elephant Action League, the two biggest markets for illegal rhino horns are Vietnam and China.

Michele Pickover, Director of the EMS foundation, an animal right NGO, says Hume is just concerned about making money.

“John Hume’s agenda is about profit. He has exacerbated the loopholes that we have in our law to trade and farm in rhinos,” Pickover said. “Our Rhinos should be protected rather than traded. It’s absolutely outrageous.”

A de-horned rhino slowly wakes up after his horn was trimmed at John Hume’s Rhino Ranch in Klerksdorp, in the North Western Province of South Africa, on February 3, 2016. /AFP Photo

South Africa is home to around 20,000 rhinos, accounting for about 80 percent of the world’s population. And they’re all in peril due to the illegal and deadly trade in their horns.

According to South Africa’s Department for Environmental Affairs, poaching rhinos has increased more than 8,000 percent in less than a decade. Poachers killed over a thousand rhino in 2016 alone.

Photo via CGTN America

Hume runs Buffalo Dream Ranch—in Klerksdorp, outside of Johannesburg. It’s the largest rhino breeding farm in the world and home to over 1,500 rhinos.

For years, Hume has been removing their horns to discourage potential poachers. Rhino horns, unlike elephant ivory, can be removed from living animals without harm and will grow back over time.

Hume says the practice is both safe and humane.

Illegal rhino horns fetch up to 3,000 US dollars a pound in South Africa, and several times more in Asian black markets, where it’s valued for both decorative and medicinal purposes.

Buynorhino Photo

With incentives like that, Hume says he has to spend 170,000 US dollars a month on security. A cost Hume says he can’t afford.

“What I am doing here is not sustainable for me. The cost is too huge, there is only one way that I will pay for this cost—that is to sell my rhino horns and use that money to protect my rhinos.”

Security at John Hume’s ranch in Klerkdorp, South Africa. /AP Photo via CGTN America

In April, Hume won a court battle to overturn a South African law banning the domestic sale of rhino horn. Under the new rules, Hume and other registered dealers can sell the horns they have, but only to customers inside South Africa.

He dismisses his critics, claiming an ethical and ‘blood free’ horn trade will prevent the carnage that comes with illegal poaching.

“So to me the people who are stopping me from selling my rhino horns and protecting my rhinos may as well be joined with the poachers because they will kill my rhinos.”

According to National Geographic, Hume says he’s stockpiled around five tons of horn on his ranch, which he someday hopes to sell at 4,500 US dollars a pound.

That’s a total of 45 million US dollars.