INTERVIEW: Navy SEAL leads team to save South Africa’s rhinos

Craig Sawyer is too cool to be called anything but “Saw.” He’s a former Navy SEAL who seems to eat tactical jargon for breakfast. Determination? Check. Dedication? Check. Driven? Check.

Now, let’s go save some rhinos.

Sawyer and a team of fellow Special Ops members, including two other SEALs and a Green Beret, are the subject of Animal Planet’s new three-part miniseries Battleground: Rhino Wars, an up-close look at the deadly issue of rhino poaching in South Africa.

“I understood that there was a crisis and an issue with it, but I didn’t understand the full extent of it,” Sawyer said recently during a phone interview. “And the head of the production company out of South Africa contacted me about it, and that’s when I started studying a little more and realizing just how pressing this issue really is.”

When contracted for the job, Sawyer began rounding up his team members, men he’s worked with over the course of his accomplished military career. He wanted to know whether his friends shared his passion for wildlife, his desire to help distressed animals an ocean away.

For six weeks, the team members “immersed” themselves in the daily struggle of the rhino wars. The group needed to practice tactics that ensured everyone’s safety.

It didn’t take long to find some action. The issue of illegal rhino poaching is quite obvious in the wilds of South Africa. “We had been there only a day before we were invited to come out to witness an autopsy of a particularly tragic scene where a mother and calf rhino had been poached together, and man it really pulled on my heart strings to witness this as we went to go observe the autopsy,” Sawyer said. “The mother and calf had both died while trying to get back to each other.”

Sawyer reported that on average two rhinos are killed per day. He characterized the situation as a “red-line crisis” that’s built on a black market where a rhino’s horn can bring up to $500,000. “The poachers are after that money, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it,” he said. “A lot of these guys [are] coming in from places like Mozambique with groups as large as 10 with AK-47s, and the AK-47s are not necessarily for the rhinos. They’re for the rangers, and they’ve killed over a 100 rangers in this war. So the rangers are really risking their lives to protect the rhinos.”

The Animal Planet series has some painfully difficult scenes to watch. Even the promos show a calf rhino crying in the darkness over the slaughter of its mother. All of this carnage could make Sawyer’s efforts seem trivial, almost like a lost cause. But he still holds out hope that the show will reach a global audience and begin an awareness campaign.

“I think a lot of times something may seem impossible at the outset, but you know sometimes it’s just a matter of striking that encouragement and that motivation in people,” he said. “And you know we’re all guys who believe in throwing ourselves into a problem and solving it with all that we have. And that’s what we’re doing. And hopefully people are inspired by that, and if the global awareness can be increased through an entertainment production like this, and people can watch us carry the fight, then maybe they’ll be motivated to join and bring political pressure and rally funding and support and manpower to help this.”

One solution that Sawyer mentioned was a shoot-on-site policy, which apparently has been adopted by South Africa’s neighboring countries. “That’s one of the things that could be a potential game changer … South Africa developing a harsher legislation against poachers,” he said.

Sawyer had nothing but plaudits for his team, calling them an experienced group of men. He had this to say about a guy on the team by the name of Biggs:  “He’s one that’s hardcore chiseled and looks like he’s ready to tear these poachers’ heads off. And the next thing you know, next scene, he’s singing to a rhino, you know giving the medical treatment and relocating it.”

Their operations were set up through a South African security company, and Sawyer said their efforts were “completely sanctioned and authorized.” The firearms were intended for security and self-defense. “We’re there to stop these poachers and save the rhino, but a lot of these poachers are not inclined to allow themselves to be arrested,” he said. “And they intend to kill anyone that stands in their way, and obviously we’re humans. We have the right to defend ourselves, so we’re armed with that purpose.”

Big men with guns. Big men with big hearts for these animals.

“I’m here to tell you, all four of us Americans, we’re combat veterans, and it pulled on every one of our heart strings. I mean it’ll choke you right up. It’s horrible, and it’s difficult to see and be immersed in, up close and personal. But at the same time it motivates you to do whatever you can as a human to reverse this. It’s a senseless and needless slaughtering of this majestic animal.”

Sawyer reported that the desire to have a rhino horn is based on false assumptions. The “magical powers” that supposedly serve as an aphrodisiac and cure cancer are, in fact, keratin, which can be found in hair and toe nails as well. “So if it were true that this cured cancer and cured everything under the sun, then people that bit their own fingernails would never get sick and never need any doctors,” he said. “It’s a false trade driven through ignorance and greed.”

For a man who built his career in the military (Sawyer said his SEAL team was the one “that got Bin Laden”), his present work is wholly satisfying.

“Look, we’re all guys who are just daring enough or just bold enough or just crazy enough to throw ourselves into this and see if we can make a difference,” he said. “I mean we’re just four guys, but we’re attacking it for all we’re worth.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Rhino Wars premieres March 7 at 9 p.m. on Animal Planet.