DamnQuail
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Taken by South African Brent Stirton, the picture shows the slumped form of a black rhino in Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Reserve.
Poachers killed the animal at night, with a silencer, and then dehorned it.
Stirton took the photo as part of an investigation into the illegal trade in rhino products.
The photographer visited more than 30 such crime scenes in the course of his probe - experiences he said he found depressing.
"My first child is going to be born in February; I'm 48. And I think I left it such a long time because I kind of lost faith in a lot of the work we see as photojournalists. You lose faith in humanity to some extent."
Stirton, who collected his award at a gala dinner at London's Natural History Museum, believes this particular piece of butchery was probably carried out by local people, but working to order.
The usual practice is to sell the animal's two horns to a middleman. This individual then smuggles the merchandise out of South Africa, most probably through Mozambique, to China or Vietnam.
In those Asian countries rhino horn has a street value higher than gold or cocaine.
The trade is driven by the misguided belief that horn - the same material as toenails - can cure everything from cancer to kidney stones.
Brent Stirton told BBC News: "For me to win this, for the jury to acknowledge this kind of picture - it's illustrative that we are living in a different time now, that this is a real issue. The sixth age of extinction is a reality and rhinos are just one of many species that we are losing at a hugely accelerated rate and I am grateful that the jury would choose this image because it gives this issue another platform."
Onlyrepostsmakethefrontpage
Wait. So this guy was at all the crime scenes. Prime suspect.
mellowdrama
God, I hate this.
TheHeartofShrimplyPibbles
WWAD
v
TooManyPixels
Fuck humanity
TheLateNinja