The owner of a huge farm in South Africa to protect rhinos, the largest in the world, announced that an auction will be held in April to sell the rhinos, explaining he no longer can bear the costs of raising these endangered animals.
About 2,000 southern white rhinos are home to Platinum Rhino, and the 8,500-hectare farm in northwestern South Africa claims to be “the largest of its kind in the world,” reports Al-Rai daily.
“Raising rhinos is expensive,” John Hume, the 81-year-old founder of Platinum, told AFP, adding that he had been raising rhinos “for 30 years without profit.”
South Africa has about 80 percent of the total number of rhinos in the world, but poaching has caused the elimination of many of them despite the increased protection efforts made by private reserves and national and regional parks alike.