Poachers pull an Ocean's 11. Kill a famed white rhino...inside the zoo

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Perhaps no rhino death illustrates that threat more forcefully than the killing of Vince, a 4-year-old male white rhino who was slaughtered this week inside his enclosure at a zoo outside Paris. The rhino — discovered by his keeper at the Thoiry Zoological Park on Tuesday — now holds the ominous distinction of likely being the first rhino to be killed by poachers inside a zoo, experts said. “This is the first time we’ve heard of it,” said Crawford Allan, senior director of TRAFFIC North America, a regional office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). “It’s certainly the first time it’s happened in Europe. “It’s an incredibly shocking and distressing occurrence,” he added. “It’s also a game-changer for zoos. They’ve woken up today and realized their world has changed if they have live rhinos in their collection.”

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The zoo pinned the killing on criminals who forced open an outer gate outside the rhinoceros building overnight. The intruders then forced open a second metal door and broke open “an intermediate inner door” that allowed them access to the animal lodges, the zoo said. Police told Reuters that Vince was shot three times in the head. One of the animal’s horns was removed, probably with a chain saw, the zoo said. “His second horn was only partially cut, which suggests that the criminals were disturbed or that their equipment proved defective,” the zoo said. “The other two white rhinoceros living in Thoiry, Gracie aged 37 and Bruno aged 5 years, escaped the massacre and are safe.” “Vince was found this morning by [his] caretaker, who is very attached to the animals she cares for, and is deeply affected,” the zoo added. “This odious act was perpetrated despite the presence of five members of the zoological staff living on the spot and surveillance cameras.”

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