Together, through technology and education we can end the poaching of rhinos and elephants once and for all! 

Save A Horny Friend Foundation's Mission

1) To support specific anti-poaching programs in Africa using technology such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones), mobile and surveillance devices to protect wildlife and track poachers before they contact animals.

2) To educate everyone about the problem of the poaching crisis and why biodiversity is important to protect and promote.

Neither rhinos nor elephants grow true horn, but for the sake of their survival and to get more people committed, the Save A Horny Friend™ (SAHF) Foundation is proud to sport a humorous name to get the world's attention around this gruesome poaching crisis devastating their populations as their faces are hacked off, often while they are still alive.

The last seven years of rhino and elephant poaching have become so severe that without intervention their populations will be extinct in the wild in the next decade.  However, there is hope if we work together now!

Action Through Technology

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are commonly lightweight, easy to fly manually or are fully programable, and no longer price prohibitive. The compactness of present-day high-resolution video cameras allow for easy access to high-quality video footage of the land, animals and humans in daylight and at night. The use of them in commercial spaces is "taking off" and thus the use for them in wild spaces becomes an ever-larger reality.

Although such organizations as the Wildlife Conservation UAV Challenge have been working for years to design the perfect UAVs for antipoaching through an international challenge, and the ever-improving battery life of these vehicles, the chance for effective UAV use to monitor wildlife and track poachers is tangible in the near future.  However, no manufacturer or field operator has shown that UAVs alone are enough to see or track poachers. To date, not one video is publicly available that shows poachers being identified, even with infrared cameras. 

In wildlife conservation in general, and in elephant and rhino anti-poaching specifically, the use of UAVs is not enough, we need more technology to supplement this future solution.

Thus, mobile phones and non-UAV surveillance are the way of the near future, until the UAV technology is good enough to actually detect poachers.

Thus, "Action Through Technology" appears to be the only way to keep poachers from reaching and killing their targets. If you support this, please donate now!

Education in California

Unfortunately, the United States is responsible for consuming about 30% of all recently poached elephant ivory.  This number comes as a shock to most because the U.S. ivory trade is mostly behind-the-scenes in certain pockets of major cities, namely New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.  

However, according to the January 2015 report, Elephant Ivory Trafficking in California, USA, by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the amount of illegal ivory sold in California has doubled in the last eight years. With at least 107 vendors in Los Angeles and San Francisco alone, the need for consumer education is mammoth. 

 Thus far there have been no ivory busts reported by any of the vendors in California, although some plan to cease selling ivory soon in the light of recently proposed laws. However, there are good chances that neither California State Assembly Bill 96 or the federal initiative, The National Strategy to Combat Wildlife Trafficking, will get passed or be prioritized enough for enforcement to make a dent in the current sales. 

The majority of ivory consumers in the U.S. is of Asian origin or connected by marriage, and thus still purchase ivory for cultural reasons.  Currently, no governmental or nongovernment organization is working on the grassroots education of the California consumers, thus Save A Horny Friend Foundation has adopted this as one of its projects.  In turn, community education in Los Angeles and San Francisco is key and needed expeditiously and creatively.

HOW YOU HELP

SPECIFIC IMMEDIATE NEEDS

Brilliant Videography Intern
Enthusiastic Social Media Intern
SquareSpace Genius Intern
Enthusiastic Wildlife Advocates
Any Professional Service
Cash 

WHO WE WANT TO PARTNER WITH

UAV Innovators
UAV Manufacturers
Community Organizations
Thought Leaders
Sustainable Brands
Educational Brands
Documentarians
Airlines

ITEMS WE NEED DONATED

PR and Media Space
Rugged UAV Aircrafts
Micro Drones                                   High and Low-End Raffle Prizes
High-End Event Locations
Swag & Logo Printing
Large Fiscal Donors