The controversial conservationist and Rhino farmer John Hume has been charged with multiple offences relating to the illegal export of Rhinoceros horn from South Africa. Hume was charged before magistrates in Pretoria on 19 August 2025, along with five co-defendants, all of whom were former employees of Mr Hume's Rhino-farming business, on 55 separate charges relating to the export of Rhino horn worth 250 million South African Rand (roughly US$14.1 million) to Southeast Asia.
Hume began farming Rhinos in the early 2000s, with a herd of about 200 Southern White Rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum simum, rising to about 2000 Animals by the time his ranch was taken over by African Parks in 2023. His business plan was simple; Rhinoceros were given good veterinary treatment to keep them healthy, the Rhinos were protected by armed guards at all times to protect them from poachers, and in addition their horns were docked regularly to make them less attractive to said poachers, and the whole thing was financed by the sale of the docked Rhino horns.
On the surface, this seemed like a good arrangement. The Rhinos appeared to thrive, a lot of people were employed boosting the local economy (although sufficient land to support 2000 Rhinos could presumably also support quite a few small African farmers), and the sale of horns from farmed Rhinos would provide an alternative supply to that from poached Rhinos, a trade which has led to the collapse of wild Rhino populations across Africa and Asia, and which has been linked to the trafficking of drugs, arms, and people.
Unfortunately, not every conservationist agreed that a legal sale of Rhino horns was sustainable. Rather than creating an alternative to the supply of poached horns, many felt that the trade in farmed horns would create a grey area allowing the illegal trade to persist, since not all horn being traded could be assumed to be illegal.
The international trade in Rhino horn was banned in 1977 under the terms of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This did not, however, ban the trade in horn within countries. There are some traditional uses for Rhino horn within South Africa (although not sufficient to support a major industry) and the internal trade in horns was not banned until 2009. Following this, Hume, and another farmer, Johan Kruger, brought a series of legal challenges to the ban finally convincing the Constitutional Court of South Africa in 2017 that the ban had been introduced without sufficient consultation and should be reversed.
Following this, the law was amended to allow for the trade in Rhino horns within South Africa, provided both the supplier and the buyer had a valid permit to trade in the commodity. This change did not, however, allow for the legal export of Rhinoceros horn from South Africa under any circumstances. Later that year, Hume held his first online auction of Rhino horns, with listings on his website in Vietnamese and Mandarin as well as languages more commonly spoken in South Africa. On several occasions since this time journalists have reported him speaking openly about the export of Rhino horns.
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