Breaking News! RIP Maxine – Another Captive Rhino Shockingly Killed By Poachers In South Africa

EarthTouch

More tragic news out of South Africa!

Attacks on captive rhinos have become a brutal new development in the devastating rhino-poaching crisis.

The latest victim, an 11-year-old female white rhino named Maxine, was heartlessly shot to death by poachers and de-horned this week at the Natal Lion Park in South Africa.

“We are devastated,” the grieving staff posted on Facebook. “We are in shock, and will do everything possible to find the culprits responsible for this heinous crime.”

According to EarthTouch, the veterinary staff determined that Maxine had been killed instantly by a bullet to the head as she innocently lay asleep in her pen.

Without her mother, Maxine had been hand-reared by keepers who loved her at the Lion Park.

EarthTouch

Maxine’s senseless death follows news from earlier this year of another horrific poaching incident that took the life of four-year-old white rhino, Vince, at the Thoiry Zoo in Paris.

As previously reported by WAN, Vince had been shot three times before being mutilated by a chainsaw for his horn.

Expected to live to between 40 and 50-years-old, the lifeless, and tusk-less body of Vince was found by zookeepers following a raid at the rhinoceros’ enclosure which is situated at the back of the zoo’s African Animal Park Reserve.

Both Maxine and young Vince brutally losing their lives is absolutely unbelievably upsetting and wrong on so many levels. They had so many more years left to live!

This heartbreaking news also reminds us once again of the unfathomable attack at South Africa’s Fundimvelo Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage in February which resulted in the death of at least two baby rhinos.

“We hope that arrests will be made soon so that [Maxine’s] poachers can be brought to justice,” said the Lion Park team in the article.

An investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is urged to contact local authorities immediately.

Sadly, there are reportedly only an estimated 20,000 white rhinos still remaining in the wild; making it more critical than ever that we do everything we can to save them!

There are numerous ways you can help. Please visit the International Rhino Foundation for further information about the rhino-poaching epidemic and the many ways you can help. Donations can also be made Here.