Family is family, and even if your family member is the lowest form of life on earth — a rhino poacher — relatives are going to want his remains, even after he was crushed by an elephant and eaten by lions.
That’s the lesson we’re drawing from the story reported by South Africa’s Lowvelder and picked up by a bazillion websites in the last twelve hours. Of course, most outlets are focusing on the fact that the would-be rhino killer was stepped on by an elephant and then set upon by a pride of lions, which left behind only the poacher’s skull and some pants. Yikes.
But we found the details of the original story poignant, that Kruger National Park ranger Don English was contacted by the poacher’s family, who had heard from his accomplices that they stood by helplessly as their partner in crime was crushed and then devoured. English assured the family that he would do all that he could to find the man’s remains. He then began a multi-day, multi-agency search that eventually found what was left of the dead poacher, and the accomplices were taken into custody and await trial.
Another Kruger National Park official said it was “very sad” to see the poacher’s daughters mourning his death.
No word yet, however, on what sort of commendation rangers have planned for the elephant.
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on April 6, 2019 at 19:00
E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He’s written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology’s harassment of Paulette Cooper titled ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,’ and more recently a compilation of his stories, ‘Battlefield Scientology.’ He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world, as well as other subjects at The Underground Bunker. You can reach him by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you’d like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.)
