为了保护濒临灭绝的犀牛，美国退伍军人响应新的武装号召
为了保护濒临灭绝的犀牛，美国退伍军人响应新的武装号召
Former soldiers are battling poachers and their own personal demons in South Africa.
在南非，退役士兵正在与偷猎者和他们自己的魔鬼作战。
Photo: Lance van de Vyver/Shutterstock
Ryan Tate, a former U.S. Marine, founded a nonprofit group called Veterans Empowered To Protect African Wildlife (VETPAW). The organization puts ex-soldiers to work protecting rhinos, something that meets several important needs at once: guarding an endangered species against poachers by people skillfully trained in combat, and giving soldiers a personal weapon against two significant problems many face after military service: unemployment and post-traumatic stress disorder.
美国前海军陆战队员瑞安·塔特成立了一个名为“退伍军人授权保护非洲野生动物”，简称VETPAW)的非营利组织。该组织让退役士兵从事保护犀牛的工作，这同时满足了几个重要的需求:由训练有素的战斗人员保护濒危物种，防止偷猎者;为士兵提供个人武器，以应对许多人在服役后面临的两个重大问题:失业和创伤后应激障碍。
“Everyone gets PTSD when they come back from war ... you are never going to get the brotherhood, the intensity again … [There are] all these veterans with billions of dollars of training and the government doesn’t use them. I saw a need in two places and just put them together,” Tate tells the Guardian.
“每个人从战场回来后都会患上创伤后应激障碍……他说:“你永远也不会再有那种手足之情，那种紧张感了……所有这些老兵都接受过数十亿美元的训练，而政府却不利用他们。”我在两个地方看到了需求，就把它们放在一起，”塔特告诉《卫报》。
Rhinos are still being poached at an alarming rate, even though the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) international ban on rhino horn is in full effect.
尽管《濒危野生动植物种国际贸易公约》(CITES)对犀牛角的国际禁令已经全面生效，但犀牛仍在以惊人的速度遭到偷猎。
"The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission's African Rhino Specialist Group (AfRSG) recently reported that the number of African rhinos killed by poachers had increased for the sixth year in a row, with at least 1,338 rhinos killed by poachers across Africa in 2015," notes AllAfrica. This is the highest level since the rhino poaching crisis began to increase in 2008. Since then, poachers have killed more than 7,900 rhinos in South Africa alone.
“国际自然保护联盟(IUCN)物种生存委员会的非洲犀牛专家小组(AfRSG)最近报告称，被偷猎者杀害的非洲犀牛数量连续第六年上升，2015年非洲各地至少有1338头犀牛被偷猎者杀害，”AllAfrica指出。这是自2008年犀牛偷猎危机开始加剧以来的最高水平。从那时起，偷猎者仅在南非就杀死了7900多头犀牛。
Wild rhinos can use any help they can get, including help from ex-military soldiers looking to do some good in the world and regain a sense of purpose and place in the process.
野生犀牛可以利用任何他们能得到的帮助，包括来自退役军人的帮助，他们希望在世界上做一些好事，并在这个过程中重新获得一种使命感和地位。
