The next time animal rights and enviro-cranks get in your face about ancient trees or "endangered" fairy shrimp, ask them why they're silent about this massive slaughter:
Vast herds of elephant and the endangered Black Rhino, cheetah, leopard and antelope have been snared, speared, shot or blown-up. Huge forests have been destroyed and entire game reserves have been devastated.
Some of the greatest game reserves in Africa have been in Zimbabwe. Now these wildlife sanctuaries are the scenes of unprecedented slaughter.
Those are the words of Dr. Peter Hammond, founder and director of Frontline Fellowship. His headquarters are in South Africa, but his Christian missionary work takes him across the continent.
He was born in Zimbabwe, where this bloodlust is going on right now as his country, in his words, "spirals downward into lawlessness and savagery." He calls it "a national suicide."
Under the Marxist regime of Robert Mugabe, the country is undergoing what is called "land redistribution." Farms are stolen from whites and given to soldiers, gangs and Mugabe's friends and family. In the process, white farmers and the blacks working for them are beaten, robbed and killed. The agricultural economy has been destroyed with more than 6 million people already starving.
But there's more, and Peter Hammond described it to me. It's a story the mainstream media and environmentalists ignore. He said he sent out a report of the savagery and I was the only person in this country to respond.
The only person in the country? Why am I the only person to respond to his cry for help for Zimbabwe's killing fields?
It's not dead people we're talking about – as if that weren't bad enough. It's dead animals. All kinds – from family pets, to farm animals, to endangered and irreplaceable wildlife. The attackers maim and kill. For fun.
Cows have their udders cut off or their feet cut off at the knees or both. Other animals – goats, sheep, horses – share the same fate and are left alive, to stumble around until they bleed to death. Family pets are tortured and, in one case, in an effort to get a farmer out of his house (while they were shooting into the home), the invaders set his horse on fire.
That's horrible enough, but what's going on in the bush is literally destroying the country. Consider:
The Save Valley, with over 840,000 acres, is one of Africa's largest conservation areas. It supports over 1,200 elephants and is home to one of the most successful Black Rhino breeding programs on the continent.
No more. Gangs set wire snares in the bush. Rangers have recovered over 1,089 dead animals – elephant, wild dog, cheetah, leopard and rhino. The snares strangled and starved them.
Since last August, 27,000 snares have been found. Rangers estimate in this reserve alone, there could be as many as 427,000 snares set.
In Kariba, game rangers found 33 elephants shot and 65 land mines set in game paths.
One entire game reserve was burned-out, enabling poachers to run animals down with dog packs – then, when caught, the animals are speared or axed to death. Animals which survive the fire and the hunt are left with nothing to eat.
In Bubiana, 240,000 trees have been destroyed and an estimated 30,000 animals slaughtered in the last 18 months. Many had only one limb cut off, the body left to rot. That was the fate of a pregnant warthog who'd been stabbed 30 times in the face.
Lynwood Ranch lost 7 of its 36 Black Rhino to snares. In Matusadona Park, one rhino had its horn hacked off and two were poisoned with pesticide. Bubiana had one of the world's largest rhino populations … 50 percent have been killed.
In Chiredzi, 270,000 acres have been destroyed – whole ecosystems are gone.
In the Midlands, four game ranches lost 80 percent of their wildlife. Animals are being shot, suggesting the army and police are responsible. In some areas, there's no game left at all.
If this continues, there won't be any tourists either. Properties have been burned out and tourists chased out of safari camps. Game rangers have been targeted, disarmed, assaulted and even killed.
Peter Hammond is the voice in the wilderness. Let's see who else cares. So far, the only sound is falling tears over senseless slaughter.
Vast herds of elephant and the endangered Black Rhino, cheetah, leopard and antelope have been snared, speared, shot or blown-up. Huge forests have been destroyed and entire game reserves have been devastated.
Some of the greatest game reserves in Africa have been in Zimbabwe. Now these wildlife sanctuaries are the scenes of unprecedented slaughter.
Those are the words of Dr. Peter Hammond, founder and director of Frontline Fellowship. His headquarters are in South Africa, but his Christian missionary work takes him across the continent.
He was born in Zimbabwe, where this bloodlust is going on right now as his country, in his words, "spirals downward into lawlessness and savagery." He calls it "a national suicide."
Under the Marxist regime of Robert Mugabe, the country is undergoing what is called "land redistribution." Farms are stolen from whites and given to soldiers, gangs and Mugabe's friends and family. In the process, white farmers and the blacks working for them are beaten, robbed and killed. The agricultural economy has been destroyed with more than 6 million people already starving.
But there's more, and Peter Hammond described it to me. It's a story the mainstream media and environmentalists ignore. He said he sent out a report of the savagery and I was the only person in this country to respond.
The only person in the country? Why am I the only person to respond to his cry for help for Zimbabwe's killing fields?
It's not dead people we're talking about – as if that weren't bad enough. It's dead animals. All kinds – from family pets, to farm animals, to endangered and irreplaceable wildlife. The attackers maim and kill. For fun.
Cows have their udders cut off or their feet cut off at the knees or both. Other animals – goats, sheep, horses – share the same fate and are left alive, to stumble around until they bleed to death. Family pets are tortured and, in one case, in an effort to get a farmer out of his house (while they were shooting into the home), the invaders set his horse on fire.
That's horrible enough, but what's going on in the bush is literally destroying the country. Consider:
The Save Valley, with over 840,000 acres, is one of Africa's largest conservation areas. It supports over 1,200 elephants and is home to one of the most successful Black Rhino breeding programs on the continent.
No more. Gangs set wire snares in the bush. Rangers have recovered over 1,089 dead animals – elephant, wild dog, cheetah, leopard and rhino. The snares strangled and starved them.
Since last August, 27,000 snares have been found. Rangers estimate in this reserve alone, there could be as many as 427,000 snares set.
In Kariba, game rangers found 33 elephants shot and 65 land mines set in game paths.
One entire game reserve was burned-out, enabling poachers to run animals down with dog packs – then, when caught, the animals are speared or axed to death. Animals which survive the fire and the hunt are left with nothing to eat.
In Bubiana, 240,000 trees have been destroyed and an estimated 30,000 animals slaughtered in the last 18 months. Many had only one limb cut off, the body left to rot. That was the fate of a pregnant warthog who'd been stabbed 30 times in the face.
Lynwood Ranch lost 7 of its 36 Black Rhino to snares. In Matusadona Park, one rhino had its horn hacked off and two were poisoned with pesticide. Bubiana had one of the world's largest rhino populations … 50 percent have been killed.
In Chiredzi, 270,000 acres have been destroyed – whole ecosystems are gone.
In the Midlands, four game ranches lost 80 percent of their wildlife. Animals are being shot, suggesting the army and police are responsible. In some areas, there's no game left at all.
If this continues, there won't be any tourists either. Properties have been burned out and tourists chased out of safari camps. Game rangers have been targeted, disarmed, assaulted and even killed.
Peter Hammond is the voice in the wilderness. Let's see who else cares. So far, the only sound is falling tears over senseless slaughter.
