We believe in change
Since 2008, when the free trade of rhino horn was made illegal, poaching has hit an all-time high. Rhino horn is the highest paid commodity on the black market, going for upwards of $100,000 per kilogram. It has been the rhino who have paid the price. From 2008-2021, an average of three rhino were killed a day, resulting in a 95% decrease in their total population.
Rhino horn has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine, but it has become an omnipotent elixir in Asian countries, with uses ranging wildly from curing cancer to increasing virility. With centuries of myth behind it, the fact that rhino horn is made up of keratin (the same thing as your fingernails) and has zero medicinal value doesn’t seem to matter. Ingesting horn is the equivalent of chewing and eating your nails.
With their greatest value sitting prominently on their face, the black market and poaching have made them worth more dead than they are alive.
As a result, national parks and reserves are forced to have anti-poaching efforts and security in place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. These increased operational costs make things like vet care, supplemental feeding, and conservation efforts cost prohibitive.
If we do not enact measures to safeguard these vulnerable species, they will vanish forever.
Cameras & Fencing
Imagine spending all of your money on security and cameras and fencing, so much so that there’s nothing left in the operating budget at the end of the month. How do you care for the animals on your reserve when you have spent everything protecting them?
Filling the Gap
Veterinary Conservation Coalition funds fill the gap for reserve owners, covering the costs of routine and emergency veterinary care, funding rhino dehorning projects, financing supplemental feed programs, and supporting reserve-wide conservation efforts.
Assistance
We provide relief in these areas as well as conservation assistance with other endangered species—cheetah, pangolin: the most trafficked mammals in the world, brown hyena, cape vulture—realizing the ecological importance of integration of animals.
