When the hunter becomes the hunted
To believe in karma is to believe in a mysterious force, energy or whatever one my call that thing that hits you when you least expect it and it's that precise that you can't doubt divinity. At least in my opinion. I am not a fan of religion or religious practices, but this thing called karma I do believe in, despite not fully understanding it and how it works. I do recognize it when it violently strikes.
Today I run into a news from sciencealert that somehow points on how karma sometimes work in the painful way. The news was about two or three poachers hunting for rhinos that were killed and eaten by lions on South Africa's Sunshine Coast. Although their remains weren't "too numerous", according to Nick Fox an owner of an eco reserve from the area, the lions meal was definitely a group of poachers.
Besides food and other equipment that the staff inspecting the area found, spread all over the area where the remains were, it was also a high-powered rifle with a silencer "left behind", that according to authorities is used in killing rhinos for their horns. Poachers hunting rhinos in Africa are not new media subjects and are not rare either, as just a few weeks ago one twenty years old rhino matriarch was killed for just one centimeter of her horn. I repeat, one rhino killed for one centimeter of horn... What a world we live in... And we're not animals anymore, right?
Diving deeper in why would these poor bastard kill hundreds of rhinos every year, if not more than a thousand, I discovered easily. It is the price of $50,000 per kg of rhino horn that the Chinese and Vietnamese will pay. Thus making poachers taking almost any risk to take down a rhino and cut its horn. Sometimes they even kill dehorned ones and I'll tell you why in a few words.
First let's talk about the Chinese and Vietnamese. The reasons that they pay that much money on such a "merchandise" is that it might cure cancer, in their opinion, hangovers and it is also a status of wealth to have such a "decoration object" hanged on a wall. And yes you read that good: it cures hangovers...
When it comes to dehorned rhinos being also killed the explanation for the situation came from an arrested poacher. The guy said that he killed one dehorned rhino just because he doesn't want the next time to chase the same animal for days, along lions and hyenas risking his life for nothing. I will say again and repeat myself: poor bastard.
Also, a study revealed that if the African rhino poaching continues at the same pace, by 2025 this animal species will go extinct, and the only places where we will find any remains of it could be in the house of some wealthy Chinese or Vietnamese bastard. Have I wrote the word "bastard" too much in this post? Probably yeah, but I am a bit pissed off whenever I read such articles and see that kind of pictures with these poor rhinos killed for their horns.
"Luckily" though, on Monday, a group of six lions were the Gods of karma for some fearless poachers that trespassed the eco reserve from South Africa's Sunshine Coast to hunt some "horns". Now, that's when they got what they deserved and became the hunted from hunters. Have no pity for them and will never have. In my opinion if one wants to make a living for his family there's always something decent to do, so providing the necessities for ones family I don't see it as an excuse for killing rhinos.
Looks like karma is not a bitch after all...
Thanks for your attention,
Ace