2022年，纳米比亚的偷猎者在六周内从私人农场偷走了14头白犀牛，因此农场主开始给犀牛锯角。这能消除猎杀动物的动机，因为偷猎者要的是犀角。有一头母犀牛的犀角长达34英寸（约86厘米）。羚羊繁育者雅科·穆勒在犀角被锯下时几乎落泪。“这是一种如此壮丽的动物，”他当时说，“但为了动物着想，这是最好的选择。”对穆勒来说，看到一头去角的犀牛总比发现一头死犀牛要好。
In 2022, poachers in Namibia had taken 14 white rhinos from private farms in six weeks, so farm owners started removing their horns. That can take away the incentive to hunt the animals, because poachers want the horns. One cow had a horn 34 inches long. Jaco Muller, an antelope breeder, said he was nearly in tears when it was removed. “It is such a magnificent animal,” he said at the time. “But for the animal’s sake, it is for the best.”For Muller, the sight of a dehorned rhino was preferable to finding a dead one.
繁育犀牛的想法源于他当时15岁的儿子的一个学校项目。2010年，穆勒将家族的繁育业务转型，在纳米比亚库内内地区建立了“犀牛妈妈项目”。穆勒认为，繁育更多白犀牛，确保它们安全繁殖，然后补充整个非洲的种群，有助于拯救该物种。于是，他建立了一个包含犀牛托管农场和非营利组织“立即拯救我们的犀牛”（Horn）的繁育计划。第一头幼犀于2013年诞生；到2025年，该项目已成为纳米比亚规模较大的私营犀牛繁育基地之一。
The idea for breeding rhinos came from his son, then 15, as a school project. In 2010, Muller converted the family’s breeding operation into what became the Rhino Momma Project in Namibia’s Kunene region. Muller believed that breeding more white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum), keeping them secure enough to reproduce, and then replenishing populations across Africa could help save the species. So he built a breeding program with a rhino-custodianship farm and the nonprofit Help Our Rhinos Now, or Horn. The first calf was born in 2013; by 2025, the project had become one of Namibia’s larger privately run rhino-breeding operations.
穆勒于2018年开设的基法鲁旅馆吸引游客带来收入，用于支付安保和犀牛护理费用。穆勒还支持将犀角贸易合法化。他的论点是，禁令让罪犯获利，而农场主和保护团体却要为安保买单。他将采集犀角比作剪羊毛：动物能存活，犀角会再生，受监管的市场或许能为保护工作提供资金。“目前，只有偷猎者从犀角中获利，”他在2025年表示。
Kifaru Lodge, which Muller opened in 2018, brought in money from tourists to help cover security and rhino care. Muller also supported legalizing the trade in rhino horn. His argument was that prohibition let criminals collect the profits while farm owners and conservation groups paid for security. He compared harvesting horn to shearing sheep: The animal would survive, the horn would grow back and a regulated market might finance protection. “Right now, only poachers make money from horns,” he said in 2025.
这一论点当时具有争议，至今仍是如此。反对者质疑合法贸易是否会为偷猎犀角的“洗白”提供便利，或是否会刺激需求。对穆勒而言，理由源于繁育项目的经济账：犀角价值高昂，而保护动物成本高昂。
That was, and remains, a controversial argument. Opponents question whether a legal trade would enable laundering of poached rhino horns or increase demand. For Muller, the case came from the economics of a breeding program: horns were valuable, and protecting the animals was expensive.
他相信犀牛也需要在纳米比亚以外建立种群。在2024年的一次有争议的举措中，42头来自Kifaru Lodge的白犀牛被出口到德克萨斯州。他以阿拉伯羚羊为例，后者通过圈养繁殖和重新引入而得以生存。穆勒经常使用自转旋翼机——这是一种类似直升机但物理原理不同的飞行器——从空中巡视保护区，寻找入侵迹象并查看全园犀牛的情况。
He believed rhinos needed populations outside Namibia as well. In a controversial move in 2024, 42 white rhinos from Kifaru Lodge were exported to Texas. He cited the Arabian oryx, which survived through captive breeding and reintroduction, as an example. Muller often used a gyrocopter, which is something like a helicopter but has different physics, to survey the reserve from the air, looking for signs of intrusion and checking on rhinos across the property.
9月19日，53岁的穆勒在奥乔附近监测犀牛和野火复燃情况时，自转旋翼机坠毁，他不幸遇难。到那时，最初的校园项目构想已发展成一个犀牛群：自2013年第一头幼崽诞生以来，该项目已记录了197次出生。巴特勒是Mongabay的创始人，这是一个专注于自然的独立新闻机构。
On Sept. 19, Muller, 53, was killed when the gyrocopter crashed while he was monitoring rhinos and wildfire flare-ups near Outjo. By then, the school-project idea had become a herd of rhinos: The project had recorded 197 births since its first calf arrived in 2013. Butler is the founder of Mongabay, an independent news organization focused on nature.