Atlanta, GA – Media Lodge and Funker Tactical have teamed up to produce a significant new video series – “The Good Fight, A Counter-Poaching Initiative”, presented by Sig Sauer. This 3-part video series will run as an online broadcast on GetZone.com, as well as Funker Tactical’s and Instructor Zero’s YouTube channels. The show will highlight the many ongoing challenges of the governments and people that are trying to protect the rhino population from extinction and defend against the ever-growing problem of poaching in Africa.In July of 2016, a team developed by Davide Bomben and Instructor Zero traveled to South Africa on a training mission to help preserve the lives of not only the rhinos, but also their sworn protectors – The Pilanesberg Rangers. In this 3-part series, we follow their 5-day training camp in the middle of the African Savannah where they battle the constant threat of enemy engagement, the unforgiving terrain and predatory wildlife.
“Media Lodge is honored to be a part of this groundbreaking video series dedicated to preserving the rhinos and protecting the Pilanesberg Rangers”, said Jeff Siegel, CEO of Media Lodge. “We hope our collective efforts make a real impact where it is needed most…at the ground level”.
The poaching syndicates in Africa are becoming more sophisticated, militarized and acquiring heavy weapons. Driven by its demand in parts of Asia where some attribute medicinal properties to rhino horn, the black market values a full-grown horn at upwards of one million dollars. This lucrative trade is also used to fund terrorist organizations such as Al-shabaab and Boko Haram, which have ties to ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Despite hundreds of “Save the Rhino” organizations operating in Africa alone, the poaching problem worsens and is now inching at the doorstep of Pilanesberg National Park, a wildlife refuge that up until recently have been largely unaffected by rhino poaching. Once wildlife caretakers, these rangers have now been forced to take up arms to defend the black and white rhino from extinction.
Davide Bomben, a founding member of the Orion Poaching Prevention Academy, has been operating in the African continent for the past decade and believes that “Conservation without force is only conversation”. Andrew Jackson, the manager of the Black Rhino Wildlife Trust operating inside Pilanesberg, also echoes this sentiment. “These rhinos don’t belong to us. They belong to our children. These men and women are here day in and day out, spending long nights in isolated outposts, risking their lives for this. This isn’t some feel good ‘adopt a rhino program’…if anything, this is an ‘adopt a fighter program’. This is real help. This is real support. We need this.”
