https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/world/africa/south-africa-rhinoceros-horns-rhinos.html
A court in South Africa effectively overturned a national ban on the trade of rhinoceros horns, a move that was celebrated by the country’s commercial rhino breeders but condemned by animal preservation groups.
“This court has concluded that the application should be dismissed,” the Constitutional Court said in a one-paragraph order that ended the government’s attempts to uphold the moratorium. The order appeared to have been issued in late March, but it was not shared with the news media until Wednesday.
The decision was a victory for commercial rhino breeders, who argued that a legal trade in horns would end the poaching of an endangered species and offset the costs of protecting the animals. “We welcome the Constitutional Court ruling,” Pelham Jones, chairman of the Private Rhino Owners Association of South Africa, which brought the case, told reporters. “We believe it is a right we have been entitled to.”
Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal, a lower court, said the government’s ban on the domestic trade was illegal. The moratorium had been in effect since 2009. The appeal to the Constitutional Court was the government’s final attempt at protecting the ban through the country’s courts.
South Africa is home to about 20,000 rhinos, more than 80 percent of the world’s total population. About a third of those animals are believed to be owned by private breeders.
Wild rhinos are regularly killed for their horns, which are often used in traditional Asian medicine. The number of rhinos poached in South Africa increased 9,000 percent from 2007 to 2014, rising to a record 1,215 animals from 13, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
