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Rhino Poaching : Act NOW to STOP The Killing!
Sian O.
started this petition to
Edna Molewa, Environmental Affairs Minister, South Africa, Ms Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister Of Defence
Dear Mr President, Ministers
South Africa is the last remaining bastion for survival of the worlds rhinos with over 90% of the surviving global population of rhinos inside our borders.
Our rhino population is currently being decimated at over a rhino per day, and this rate is increasing almost daily.
All we hear from government is talk, yet we see no action!
This has now reached a serious crisis level where if we do not do something IMMEDIATELY, soon there will be no rhinos left to save!
We do however have the means to stop it.
This is a petition to ask you, and the South African Government to STOP TALKING AND ACT against the poachers and criminal syndicates that are brutally killing one of our most precious resources - our rhinos!
We therefore ask that you implement the following:
1. Enact a strict NO BAIL policy with IMMEDIATE EFFECT for ANYONE charged or convicted of rhino poaching or involvement with rhino poaching at ANY LEVEL. We have already had instances of foreign nationals fleeing the country despite high bail limits being set - the only way to ensure that these people face justice is to keep them locked up until they go to trial.
2. Deploy the SANDF to our parks and private reserves that have rhinos.
3. Impose a minimum jail term of 25 years with NO PAROLE and NO EXCEPTIONS for ANYONE convicted of rhino poaching or involvement with rhino poaching in any form or at any level.
4. Impose economic sanctions against China & Vietnam until their governments take mass action to educate their populations on the proven lack of any medicinal value in rhino horn. In addition demand that they show their citizens images of the end results of this terrible and senseless slaughter. Without educating the market that wants these horns, we will never stop the killing.
5. Bring back our "green courts" so that we have a dedicated institution in which to prosecute environmental crimes. This will eliminate these crimes from being dealt with by our lower district courts, and will ensure a much higher conviction rate (the Hermanus environmental court, in its few years of existence, had a conviction rate of 85% - this is what we need in the war on rhino poaching).
All the people that have signed their names to this petition agree with the above sentiments and ask that you implement the above requests immediately and without question.
If you don't act swiftly and decisively on this issue, our country and our people will go down in history among those that were responsible for the death and extinction of one of the oldest animal species on our planet, for as a nation we had the ability to make a difference, and we didn't.
Mr President, Ministers, you have the power to save our rhinos - its now time to show us you have the will to do so!
South Africa is the last remaining bastion for survival of the worlds rhinos with over 90% of the surviving global population of rhinos inside our borders.
Our rhino population is currently being decimated at over a rhino per day, and this rate is increasing almost daily.
All we hear from government is talk, yet we see no action!
This has now reached a serious crisis level where if we do not do something IMMEDIATELY, soon there will be no rhinos left to save!
We do however have the means to stop it.
This is a petition to ask you, and the South African Government to STOP TALKING AND ACT against the poachers and criminal syndicates that are brutally killing one of our most precious resources - our rhinos!
We therefore ask that you implement the following:
1. Enact a strict NO BAIL policy with IMMEDIATE EFFECT for ANYONE charged or convicted of rhino poaching or involvement with rhino poaching at ANY LEVEL. We have already had instances of foreign nationals fleeing the country despite high bail limits being set - the only way to ensure that these people face justice is to keep them locked up until they go to trial.
2. Deploy the SANDF to our parks and private reserves that have rhinos.
3. Impose a minimum jail term of 25 years with NO PAROLE and NO EXCEPTIONS for ANYONE convicted of rhino poaching or involvement with rhino poaching in any form or at any level.
4. Impose economic sanctions against China & Vietnam until their governments take mass action to educate their populations on the proven lack of any medicinal value in rhino horn. In addition demand that they show their citizens images of the end results of this terrible and senseless slaughter. Without educating the market that wants these horns, we will never stop the killing.
5. Bring back our "green courts" so that we have a dedicated institution in which to prosecute environmental crimes. This will eliminate these crimes from being dealt with by our lower district courts, and will ensure a much higher conviction rate (the Hermanus environmental court, in its few years of existence, had a conviction rate of 85% - this is what we need in the war on rhino poaching).
All the people that have signed their names to this petition agree with the above sentiments and ask that you implement the above requests immediately and without question.
If you don't act swiftly and decisively on this issue, our country and our people will go down in history among those that were responsible for the death and extinction of one of the oldest animal species on our planet, for as a nation we had the ability to make a difference, and we didn't.
Mr President, Ministers, you have the power to save our rhinos - its now time to show us you have the will to do so!
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