Topix Underground

"Eccentric’ billionaire forced to sell his 2,000 captive rhinos following government ban: ‘One of the largest … endeavors to occur for any species’"


"John Hume is the world’s most prolific private rhino breeder, and his operation has been on the verge of bankruptcy for years, as Save the Rhino reported in 2018.

The reason? A series of government bans on the sale of rhino horns, which Hume claims to harvest humanely from his herd of captive rhinos. Now, an NGO has stepped in and agreed to pay Hume for his rhinos so that they can be rewilded.

Hume, a wealthy South African property developer turned rhino farmer, is a controversial figure. His herd of 2,000 semi-captive rhinos constitutes around 7.4% of the world’s total rhino population (there are an estimated 27,000 rhinos currently alive, according to Save the Rhino).

Hume has claimed that his efforts to breed rhinos and harvest their horns are, in fact, protecting them from poachers. He calls his work a philanthropic project to save the species.

The eccentric billionaire has drawn plenty of backlash with his practice of regularly anesthetizing the rhinos and cutting off their horns in an attempt to sell them. Now, his ability to make money off the animals has been stymied.

“This is one of the largest continent-wide rewilding endeavors to occur for any species,” the NGO said, as Daily Maverick reported, while also adding that Hume’s captive-bred rhinos represented nearly 15% of the world’s remaining wild rhino population."