How Black-Market Poison Is Helping Poachers Kill Animals
In Zimbabwe, there’s no effective way to track cyanide—and elephants are suffering terrible deaths because of it.
According to Zimbabwe authorities, poachers have killed a total of 80 elephants by poisoning them with cyanide, a highly toxic industrial chemical, during various incidents in recent months.
First, 11 elephants were killed in Hwange National Park and 3 in Matusadona National Park. On October 26, the parks authority announced that another 22 had been poisoned and killed in Hwange. A week later, it was reported that cyanide had taken the lives of 26 in the park. And during the past three weeks, more cyanide deaths were found in Mana Pools, Chizarira, and Gonarezhou National Parks.
A court in Hwange has sentenced three men to a range of from seven months to 10 years in prison in connection with the cyanide poisonings
