Standing With a Team Saving Rhinos, One Dehorning At A Time

Photo Credit: Tyler Leigh Vivier

On World Rhino Day, we reflect on the emotional experience of witnessing a rhino dehorning; a heavy but hopeful step against poaching.

South Africa (22 September 2025) – In honour of World Rhino Day today, we honour a moment that was truly life-changing. Good Things Guy was invited to witness a rhino dehorning two weeks ago. We got to watch as three rhinos were dehorned, ensuring that all species on the property face a lower risk of poaching. Thankfully, now all their animals have been dehorned and will be safer.

While the moment was quite something to behold, and knowing just how necessary this act is, I have taken my time in sharing the experience. Firstly, I wanted to put some distance between the date of the event and publishing it online, as well as taking time to consider the implications of such a practice.

Rhino dehorning is new; it has only been in practice over the past decade as a way to deter poachers from killing the beautiful creatures for their horns. Thankfully, in most cases, this has worked and instances of poaching have dropped throughout the country, but not entirely. Dehorning a rhino is not natural, but it is necessary.

One of the rhinos just after being darted, before its dehorning.

Watching a rhino being dehorned doesn’t fill one with joy, but it does fill one with pride knowing there are people who will go to great lengths to save rhinos. For rhino, being put under anaesthesia comes with risks. The cutting of the horn can be very disturbing for them (and us), but with everything going well, they hop right back up and carry on. On this day, thankfully, all went well.

I had expected to see huge chainsaws and loud noises, but the teams have become so advanced in how this is done that the tools were not as big, scary or noisy. Dehorning took only a handful of minutes, and the rhinos were back on their feet very quickly and wandering off to find snacks in the bush.

I don’t think I will ever fathom or understand the use of rhino horn in medicinal practices. It is vile, not just the act of poaching, but the horn itself has a stench that turned my stomach and quite nearly embarrassed me in front of a group of onlookers. Perhaps my stomach also turned because I know the horrific acts that take place when poachers remove that horn.

It was heavy in my hand, the weight felt significant, symbolic even. As I passed the horn back to the team for processing, I felt heavy. The officials present to document the dehorning and ensure all protocols were followed shared that this is just the way it is now. Something they are present for, far more often.

Once removed, the horns are sent to be stored at a security vault somewhere in South Africa, the location undisclosed for safety reasons. All this forms part of a necessary protocol to ensure dehorning is done legally.

It is a strange world we live in, one that has made me feel scared to share this story, conflicted by witnessing the dehorning, and proud to see so many fighting to protect rhinos. It’s not easy; not everyone will agree that dehorning is the right way. There are different ways people are working to protect rhinos, and each is essential. In the perfect world, we could just leave them alone. But it’s not perfect, so we praise the heroes doing what they can, with the tools they have been given.

The world needs to change so that rhinos can go back to what they do best: staying fat and keeping grass trimmed.

It was an honour to be included on the day. I left feeling deeply grateful for the people who invest in measures to protect rhinos both on private and national land. Thank you to Kim Herselman Hobson from The Anti-Poaching 200 Club, who invited us to join; to Cradle Moon, who hosted us and to the entire team of vets, officials and rangers for giving us an inspiring day where we felt hopeful that each rhino will now be a little bit safer.