Four years of investigation into death and mutilation of a white rhino in the Thoiry zoo (Yvelines) gave nothing. The gendarmes of Mantes-la-Jolie failed to identify those responsible rhino death and mutilation.
On November 29, 2021, the investigating judge in charge of the investigation therefore pronounced a dismissal, indicates the Versailles prosecutor’s office.
An unprecedented case in Europe
The case dates back to March 7, 2017. The keepers of the Thoiry zoo discover one of their rhinos, Vince, four years old, shot three times in the head. The main horn of the animal was sawn off and stolen.
This had never happened in a European zoo and the affair had moved far beyond the French borders. The Minister of Ecology at the time, Ségolène Royal, had also reacted.
Rhinoceros horns are of great value
The market value of Vince’s horn, which was about twenty centimeters long, had been estimated at between “30,000 and 40,000 euros“by investigators. The white rhino, native to South Africa, nearly disappeared in the 19th century and became a subspecies extremely threatened by poaching.
The slaughter of rhinos for their horn is still very important
Her horn is trafficked worldwide, because it is being snapped up for tens of thousands of dollars on the black market, especially in China and Vietnam. Traditional medicine attributes all kinds of false virtues to it, such as curing cancer or impotence.
Its international trade has been banned since 1977, but this measure has not stopped the slaughter of rhinos in Africa.