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Pretoria. — Nearly 1 200 rhinos were killed by poachers in South Africa last year, officials said yesterday, a slight decrease on 2014, but another year of carnage fuelled by Asian-led demand for their horn.

Fewer than 100 rhinos were poached in 2008, since when numbers have rocketed. A record 1,215 were killed in 2014.

The slaughter has been driven by demand for their horn in countries such as China and Vietnam, where they are prized for their purported medicinal properties.

The horn is composed mainly of keratin, the same component as in human nails, but it is sold in powdered form as a supposed cure for cancer and other diseases.

“By the end of December 2015, the number of poached rhinos was 1 175,” Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa told reporters, hailing the figure as a success.

“The onslaught against our rhino has continued unabated, which has necessitated we step up our efforts.

“We are very pleased to announce that for the first time for a decade the poaching situation has stabilised… This is very good news and very good cause for optimism.”

The soaring price of rhino horn and the poaching crisis has sparked a debate on whether to legalise sales in an attempt to stifle the lucrative black market trade.

Legally de-horning a rhino would see a farm owner put the animal under anaesthesia, then saw off the horn.

A South African judge in November lifted a domestic ban on trade in rhino horn, alarming conservationists.

The government lost an appeal against the decision on Wednesday, but said it would go to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

“It is hard to see any positive conservation benefits from lifting the moratorium on domestic trade in rhino horn,” Colman O’Criodain, wildlife trade expert at the WWF, said.

“There is no domestic demand for rhino horn in South Africa, so it is inconceivable that anyone would buy it – unless they intend to sell it abroad illegally or they are speculating that international trade will be legalised.”

The case, bought by two game breeders, came ahead of a meeting in Johannesburg in September of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which could lift the global ban.

“Every rhino horn we cut off, the rhino stays alive, whereas every single rhino that poachers take the horns from is killed,” said Izak du Toit, a lawyer for the game breeders.

“This is simply a legal alternative to the current illegal killing of animals.”

Some experts believe the real figures on poaching deaths are far higher as many carcasses are never recovered.

South Africa is said to be home to around 20,000 rhinos, some 80 percent of the worldwide population. — AFP.