How Black-Market Poison Is Helping Poachers Kill Animals

How Black-Market Poison Is Helping Poachers Kill Animals
Zimbabwe authorities announced last month that poachers killed a total of 62 elephants by poisoning them with cyanide, a highly toxic industrial chemical, during various incidents in September and October.

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. And then, a week later, it was reported that cyanide had taken the lives of 26 in the park.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Elephant poaching has been on the rise in Zimbabwe, and cyanide is becoming an increasingly common way to kill. It’s cheap and quiet. Poachers have laced salt licks with the cyanide and poured the chemical into watering holes. They’ve even baited oranges with it.

But who’s using it? And where does it come from? A closer look at Zimbabwe’s hazardous substance laws shows a thriving black market for cyanide, thanks to a weak inventory control system and lack of tracking once it leaves the primary seller’s possession.

Oppah Muchinguri, Zimbabwe’s minister of water, climate and environment, told the Sunday Mail, a weekly paper owned by the government, that investigations into the cyanide poisonings have revealed that poaching syndicates smuggle cyanide into the country from Zambia and South Africa.

She also said that the probe has been expanded to include park employees, seven of whom have already been arrested in connection with the earlier cyanide killings. Two local police officers have also been arrested.

The latest spate of killings, splashed across papers from Zimbabwe to the United States, raise concern about a possible resumption in the use of the chemical. Two years ago, more than 300 elephants were killed with cyanide by well-organized poaching syndicates operating from the capital, Harare, and Bulawayo, the country’s second biggest city. According to investigative sources within the parks authority, Chinese ivory traffickers in Harare were implicated.

Zimbabwe has more than 83,000 elephants, according to government estimates, most of them in Hwange National Park and along the Zambezi Valley. Elephant poaching has been on the rise. A 2014 report, the National Survey for Elephants in Zimbabwe, said that the number of elephants in the Zambezi Valley had fallen from 19,000 in 2001 to 13,000—a 40 percent drop.More Zimbabweans were arrested for elephant poaching than foreigners in 2012—mainly South Africans but also Zambians, Congolese, and Botswanans, according to a report released by safari operators in the Hwange and Gwayi areas. SeveralChinese citizens have also been arrested for alleged involvement in ivory trafficking to Asia.What Is Cyanide?Cyanide is a fast-acting, potentially deadly chemical. It exists in two states: as the colorless gases hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride or in crystal form as sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide.The chemical is used for everything from making paper, textiles, and plastics to mining gold—an important application in Zimbabwe. Miners use cyanide concentrate to catalyze the separation of pure gold from bulk ores during the chemical purification process. In gas form, it’s used to kill pests in buildings and ships. It has also been used as a weapon of war.Cyanide kills the body’s cells by starving them of oxygen. In mammals, the poison is most harmful to the heart and brain—organs that depend heavily on oxygen supplies.  Elephants, according to Dave Dell, of Friends of Hwange, an elephant welfare group working in the park, are especially vulnerable to mass killings because they move together in large groups, sharing the same salt licks and water sources.  “Usually they don't get more than 100 meters” after taking the poison, Dell told the Los Angeles Times. “The suffering is horrible. They get weak very quickly and collapse.”Zimbabwe’s Cyanide Black MarketUnder Zimbabwe’s Hazardous Substance Act, cyanide can only be sold by accredited chemical substance dealers to customers in the mining and chemical industry. The customers, mostly gold miners, are then required to produce written proof that they’re authorized to handle and use it.These accredited chemical substance dealers must have valid permits from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.