Dr. Diana Deblanc, equine and rhino veterinarian, will be at the Placitas Library April 22 to talk about saving rhinos in Africa.

“If we don’t stand to action, we are facing the extinction of rhinos in less than five years,” Deblanc said.

According to Deblanc, in 2017, there were 18,000 white rhino and 2,500 black rhino at Kruger National Park in South Africa. In 2022, there were 3,500 white rhino and 250 black rhino.

She added that 90% of the rhino population has already been killed off for their horns.

Deblanc graduated from the University of New Mexico and went on to a program in Colorado for veterinary services.

Her passion for rhinos started when she had the opportunity to work with a baby rhino from the Denver Zoo that had a fatal disease. She later became the in-house veterinarian for the world’s largest rhino orphanage sanctuary in South Africa.

Deblanc has spent her life helping rhinos with her veterinary degree. Her talk in April will go over some ways people can help the cause from here.

The talk will take place a Placitas Library at 2 p.m. on April 22.

For more information about Deblanc’s work, visit https://www.dianadeblanc.org/.