In Kenya they kill rhino poachers on site.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35503077

Hopefully they still will. An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

The sweet spot for deterrence comes in the form of punishment that is swift and certain, not necessarily dire.

I'm sorry, no. I must respectfully disagree here - death to poachers is fair when we're talking about the extinction of species, and certainly of some of the most majestic creatures on our planet. We have 7+ billion humans and fewer than 500 thousand elephants in Africa and fewer than 30,000 rhinos left. They are more valuable than gold - literally priceless. Everything and anything must be done to protect and ensure the survival of the species.

That is ad hominem in the extreme. Governments are charged with powers that individuals do not possess. If the state declares poaching, which is already by definition a crime, to be punishable by death, it is not murder if it is enforced by the state's hand.

It is not ad hominem at all. Please refresh your vocabulary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

Governments are also supposed to conduct a fair trial with due process before condemning someone to death.

Governments are also not to be bribed by foreigners to sell "poaching" to safari-hunters - while there own people starve. Governments are to get a problem by the source and ask why all those citizens in desperation turn towards poaching. Government is expected to be clever and spawn anti-poaching myths about peoples penises falling off or shrinking after eating rhino horn. Also, to expect the law to uphold in warzones - that is madness. If somebody wants to kill you, even the threat a judge can make from afar - of prison in a jar- is by far less worse then returning the hostile specimen back to the wild. There is no war, where the respect for the law in veterans does not decay to zero over time.

As if humanity is the most peaceful species on earth. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/84/17/44/8417...

The poachers aren't killed for their hunting crime, they are dangerous murderers. Here's 2 links:

https://www.iucn.org/content/rising-murder-toll-park-rangers...

http://www.poachingfacts.com/poaching-statistics/

I also advocate that these rangers should be allowed to kill poachers rather than just be killed by them. I think you're wrong and didn't read information regarding the topic. I reject your virtue signalling as appropriate.

> Everything and anything must be done to protect and ensure the survival of the species.

That's your value judgement. Others may have a different judgement. How do you decide who's right?

(Just for clarification: I think poachers are the scum of the earth, but there's a long way from that to what you're proposing, AFAIUI.)