In partnership with basketball superstar Yao Ming and WildAid, Discovery Channel announces the premiere of Saving Africa’s Giants With Yao Ming, which looks at the worldwide crisis of elephant and rhino poaching. The one-hour feature documentary – narrated by award-winning actor Edward Norton.
Basketball legend and wildlife advocate Yao Ming travels to Africa to uncover the brutal secrets of this multi-million-dollar underground trade, and spotlights Yao’s mission to educate and inspire his countrymen and the world alike, in the effort to stop the killings and save these innocent creatures from the very real possibility of extinction. Yao’s combination of strength, vision and voice serves as a megaphone to help spread awareness about the cruelty of poaching.
“The huge price motivates poachers to persist,” says Yao. “And if we buy ivory, it makes all of us killers as well.”
Unfortunately, elephants are not the only victims to poaching. Rhinos are poached for their horns at a record rate as two rhinos a day are slain in South Africa alone. Yao travels to the Kariega Game Reserve, located at South Africa’s East Cape, to experience the struggle and pain of orphaned rhinos, whose parents have been killed.
“When our message is spread by those who see this documentary, people can join us and hopefully wipe out this black market,” says Yao.
To play a part in saving elephants and rhinos from possible extinction, make a donation or sign the pledge against purchasing or consuming products made from endangered species at www.DiscoveryChannelAsia.com.
Saving Africa’s Giants With Yao Ming premieres on Friday, November 21 at 10:00 p.m., exclusively on Discovery Channel (Astro Channel 551)
