Four rhinos butchered at Gobabis

Four rhinos butchered at Gobabis Pregnant cow entered labour when shot Four rhinos, including a prized bull, were shot on private land near Gobabis, however, the poachers only got away with the horns of two. Last week, four rhinos were shot by poachers in the Omaheke Region of which two of them were killed.

According to police the incident occurred on the farm Kainas about 26 km west from Gobabis.

Apparently, when the rhinos were fed on 21 December everything was still fine.

The following day at about 15:00 when employees went to feed the rhinos again, they saw that some of the animals were missing and came across one rhino that was shot and killed and its horns removed.

The police was immediately phoned and upon further investigation another rhino cow that was also pregnant was found shot and killed. The horns of this animal were also removed.

When investigations continued it was found that two more rhinos were wounded, but not killed.

According to the owner of the farm Walter Kinnear, they suspect the incident occurred on either 21 or 22 December.

“They killed our bull Romeo. He was about eight and was the patriarch of the group. They killed a cow that went into labour when they shot her. Then they also wounded two young rhinos.”

According to him one of the two wounded rhino will survive, however, a young cow which is also suspected to be pregnant has a 50/50 chance at survival.

Kinnear says that all of the rhinos were shot more than once, while according to him indications are that it might have been an inside job.

Kinnear said that he has also called in the help of private investigators and expects that arrests will follow soon.

Police told Namibian Sun that it is believed that the suspects entered the farm on foot and left a vehicle parked outside the property.

It is also suspected that the poaching incident took place during the day and that the suspects used a silencer.

According to police what made investigations more difficult was the fact that it rained in the area and this washed away tracks. On Friday police and ministry of environment and tourism officials as well as forensic teams were still busy on the farm with investigations.

ELLANIE SMIT