Rhino horn is worth more than cocaine, heroin or even gold on the black markets of Southeast Asia and China. Now, "Killing for Profit" brings you the story of one man s journey into a violent underworld where ruthless criminal syndicates will stop at nothing to attain their prize a tale of greed and corruption and of an increasingly desperate battle to save from extinction an animal that has existed for over 50 million years. This is investigative journalism at its gripping best.If you read only one book this year, you want it to be this one Journalist Julian Rademeyer follows the bloody trail of the syndicates, poachers, smugglers, hunters and hustlers from the frontlines of the rhino wars in Zimbabwe and South Africa to the medicine markets of Vietnam, and into the lair of a wildlife trafficking kingpin on the banks of the Mekong River in Laos.This book will appeal to anyone concerned about the survival of our endangered animal species and the environment in general.
Julian Rademeyer is an award-winning investigative journalist. He has written and worked for many of South Africa's major newspapers, including City Press, Beeld, the Sunday Times, Pretoria News and The Herald. He has been a stringer for Reuters and a freelance writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Associated Press. Until he resigned to write this book, he was chief reporter for Media24 Investigations. In a career spanning close on two decades, he has reported from some of the world's most troubled countries, including Somalia, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Belarus and Lebanon.
"Killing for Profit" by Julian Rademeyer is an eye-opening and horrifying two year investigation into the poaching and trafficking of rhinoceri, which threatens to make these mammals, which have survived on earth for over 50 million years, and extinct species. Southeast Asia pharmaceutical markets are the ones buying these prized horns, and they are paying prices higher than gold or cocaine or heroin! And who besides the poachers are involved in these criminal slaughters of the near-sighted, helpless beasts? There are greedy syndicates who use gangsters, con men, mercenaries, killers, poachers, gunrunners, crime bosses and even diplomats and government officials (bribed enormously under the table.) The countries fighting this trade are South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, but the war against these corrupt, money hungry thugs makes dangerous conditions for those seeking to stop the atrocities against rhinos, all because the Asian population believes the horns are aphrodisiacs! For centuries the Asian people have believed that powdered rhino horns would cure everything from hang-overs to cancer, and although modern science has disproved this, the people still want to buy it, so Asian pharmaceutical companies and shops keep it in stock, resulting in thousands of rhinos being systematically slaughtered each year. The new rich in these countries don't care how much it costs or that it is illegal and still believe in not only the medicinal qualities but also want the horn to display as a prized status symbol of wealth. So sad, but the book is intriguing to see how far people will go either to destroy or save a species, which is irreplaceable on this earth!
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