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    Stop Trade in Rhino Horn

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    To: CITES SG John E. Scanlon + 175 Country Representatives

    Dear Mr Scanlon, members of the Secretariat, Standing Committee, management and scientific representatives of Parties:

    We call upon you to organise an emergency meeting with a single agenda point:

    Put all possible measures in place to stop the out-of control poaching of rhinos.
    Measures should...

    …

    Dear Mr Scanlon, members of the Secretariat, Standing Committee, management and scientific representatives of Parties:

    We call upon you to organise an emergency meeting with a single agenda point:

    Put all possible measures in place to stop the out-of control poaching of rhinos.
    Measures should include, but not be limited to:
    1. Refuse Vietnam and other implicated countries permits, for all listed species, until such time as all suspected dealers and possessors of illegal animal parts have been brought to book.
    2. A moratorium on all hunting permits for all Rhino, until the poaching is down to zero.
    3. A moratorium on all sales of Rhino, until the poaching is down to zero.
    4. An immediate FULL census of all remaining rhino, DNA sampling, chipping, e-tracking, indelible ink infusion, and treatment to render the horn (while keeping it on it's owners head) unfit for human consumption.
    5. Listing of all species of Rhino to Critically Endangered.
    6. All horn stockpile (from dead and de-horned Rhino) to be rendered unfit for human consumption - by fire, poison or other suitable method that will smash the myth that it is somehow medicine.
    7. Denounce all talk of trade in bogus medicine as fuelling fraud.
    7.

    This petition closed on July 31, 2012.

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    15,000

    14,065 people signed the petition

    Brb

    If we don’t take action now, rhinos could be extinct within the next decade. Every 14.6 hours a rhino is killed so that its horns can be used as bogus medicine. Rhino horns are in demand on the criminal black markets in Vietnam - per kilogram - worth more than diamonds and gold. Grinding dishes are sold to make a concoction with water and horn powder, in the false hope that it may cure cancer and other ailments. Science has proven that it has no health benefits whatsoever.

    The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement to protect animals from exploitation, has some regulations in place to stop the trade of rhino horn. Unfortunately, these regulations have been found wanting, full of loopholes, and easily sidestepped to feed the falsely created hype in Vietnam.

    The dwindling numbers aren’t only a result of poaching. Trophy hunting of rhinos in South Africa is still allowed, and 70% of the "hunters" are Vietnamese, or from neighbours Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. This ‘legal’ form of rhino slaughter is fuelling the trade in horns that is driving the species to extinction.

    CITES must put strong pressure on Vietnam and it's neighbours to stop the trade of rhino horn, halt trophy hunting permits for rhinos, and mount a public education campaign to show that rhino horn is useless for medicinal purposes.

    Issues:

    1. Update #3

      Posted by Rian Geldenhuys (Campaign Leader) on May 31, 2012

      Schweizerische Post has confirmed that the CITES Secretariat has signed for the registered letter containing the signed petition to call an emergency meeting to end horn trade.
      We thank you very much. There is more to do.
      Please go to http://www.cites.org/cms/index.php/lang-en/component/cp/ and keep the contact details of the Management Authority and Scientific Authority of your country at hand. Prepare to phone / engage them on this matter (and any other wildlife trade matters you are...

      …

      Schweizerische Post has confirmed that the CITES Secretariat has signed for the registered letter containing the signed petition to call an emergency meeting to end horn trade.
      We thank you very much. There is more to do.
      Please go to http://www.cites.org/cms/index.php/lang-en/component/cp/ and keep the contact details of the Management Authority and Scientific Authority of your country at hand. Prepare to phone / engage them on this matter (and any other wildlife trade matters you are deeply concerned about).
      Time to change the world.
      We will send another mail soon.

    2. Update #2

      Posted by Rian Geldenhuys (Campaign Leader) on May 4, 2012

      Thank you to all 10,001 signers! We have met target an incredible 3 weeks early.
      We ask that every signer that can possibly make it to Geneva on 31 May for the official hand-over, please join us at the Facebook Group www.facebook.com/groups/STIRtalk so that we can discuss details.
      Thank you again!
      Voices for Rhino

    3. Update #1

      Posted by Rian Geldenhuys (Campaign Leader) on Apr 30, 2012

      Dear Signatories
      We have sad news. Today, 30 April, is the end of the first trimester of 2012. 200 Rhinos have been poached in this period. It means that every 14.6 hours, another rhino dies because greedy people find it easy to falsify/duplicate permits to transport horn.
      Only a COMPLETE ban on all trophy permits will curb this.

      CITES issue the permits. Only they can stop doing so.

      This is a major undertaking. Apart from the standing committee of CITES, around 300 CITES officials in 175...

      …

      Dear Signatories
      We have sad news. Today, 30 April, is the end of the first trimester of 2012. 200 Rhinos have been poached in this period. It means that every 14.6 hours, another rhino dies because greedy people find it easy to falsify/duplicate permits to transport horn.
      Only a COMPLETE ban on all trophy permits will curb this.

      CITES issue the permits. Only they can stop doing so.

      This is a major undertaking. Apart from the standing committee of CITES, around 300 CITES officials in 175 countries will be receiving your signature and comments.

      Please invite 25 friends regularly (you can do so every 5 minutes), share regularly, tweet and email to many contacts.

      Let the next 14.6 hours bring many more Voices for Rhino - before the next one dies a horrible death.

    See more

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