Dozens of elephants in Zimbabwe poisoned with cyanide
CBC Radio | Posted: October 16, 2015 9:48 PM | Last Updated: October 16, 2015
In Zimbabwe, more and more elephants are dying a slow and painful death.
Earlier this week, rangers at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park discovered 26 elephant carcasses contaminated with cyanide. And yesterday, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said a total of 76 elephants have been killed over the past two weeks, most from cyanide poisoning.
"It's not very nice to watch. It's a horrendous, inhumane way of actually dying. No dignity. No nothing. You just suffer with pain until you're dead," Johnny Rodrigues tells As It Happens host Carol Off.
Rodrigues is the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.
He says people in the impoverished country are desperate. Many are tempted by Asian ivory markets and turn to poaching. But he says the recent spike in the use of cyanide is particularly concerning and harder to track.
"It's a silent way of doing it. Normally, when they use weapons, the authorities are on to it," Rodrigues explains. "The other issue is that so many animals die -- other species of animals die too."
Rodrigues says that poachers mix the cyanide with salt and place it in the elephants' drinking water. Other animals then drink from the same reservoir or eat the poisoned elephant carcass.
Rodrigues insists there is a lack of political will to address the problem. He argues that failing to prosecute American dentist Walter Palmer for shooting Cecil the Lion was a missed opportunity by Zimbabwe authorities.
"It's a sorry state -- it really is," Rodrigues says. "By them withdrawing the charges against Palmer, it doesn't send a good signal to the poaching community because it just shows that, if you've got the money, you can actually bribe your way through."
Rodrigues says there needs to be a change in approach to make wildlife tourism more sustainable and lucrative than poaching.
"At the moment all we've got is the hunting fraternity turning around and saying it's very sustainable and they're giving meat to the people and they do this and they do that," Rodrigues explains. "But when you go onto the ground into the rural areas, you don't see much improvement -- the poverty is still there."
"These animals belong to Africa," he says. "They've got the right to life and they should be looked after. I mean, they are more intelligent than some humans. They never forget. They've got a memory that actually is very impressive. It's just amazing. The relationships they have in between the families -- it's just phenomenal."