The opening of the first legal auction in South Africa to sell rhinoceros horns

The first legal auction in South Africa to sell rhinoceros horns opened Wednesday, offering 264 centuries after the owner of the largest private collection of rhinoceros won a lawsuit against the government.

The animals were numb before cutting their horns so as not to feel pain, said Belham Jones, president of the Association of Rhino Animals. The growth of the century needs to be renewed for about two years.

A court ruled on Sunday to allow an online auction after the government suspended a permit from John Hume, owner of the rhinoceros group. The auction is due to end at 1300 GMT on Friday.

South Africa has more than 80 percent of the world's rhinoceros, whose numbers have been reduced by overfishing to sell their clans in Vietnam and China, where they are used as a component of alternative medicines.

Hume, who has 1,500 lone horns in his sprawling farmhouse southeast of Johannesburg, has stockpiled centuries of horns as he cuts horns of his animals to protect them from overfishing.

Global trade in rhinoceros horns is prohibited by a United Nations treaty. Hume said he needed to sell his stock of pods so he could afford rising insurance costs, including armed patrols, helicopters and electrified fences.