Could legalising rhino horn trade stop poaching? (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg

South Africa is considering legalising rhino horn trade - in a bid to combat rampant rhino poaching, but the suggestion has been met with mixed reaction in Southern Africa.

Demand for rhino horn is at an all time high and South Africa, which has the largest reserves of the wild animal, is a prime hunting ground for poachers.

Over the past three years, gangs are said to have killed more than 800 rhinos for their horns, which can fetch £22,000 ($35,055) per kg on the black market.

Poachers use a chainsaw to cut away the rhino's horns, after darting it with a tranquilizer - drugged and helpless the animal bleeds to death.

Large syndicates are involved in this multi-billion dollar trade worldwide - exporting the horns from Africa to parts of Asia and the Middle-East.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15355494




About time -- I've been saying this for years! Mark it as genuine rhino horn, not a substitute, and sell it for a fraction of the open market price.

[Tejas]

1. Prohibition not only kills rhinos, but

also gets park rangers that protect the rhinos killed.

[shraby]

2. What's to keep the rhinos from dying when the horns are

cut of even if they are legal?

[eppur_se_muova]

5. Wild animal parks collect rhino horn from animals that die naturally.

I saw a documentary once where the park officials were collecting all these horns -- worth a tremendous amount on the black market -- and when the storage shed got full, they just burned them. They couldn't sell them, even though they weren't obtained by poaching. Seemed like a big waste to me. Why not use this harmless source of rhino horn to undercut the illegal market?

(An alternative -- which I don't recommend, but might be resorted to in desperation -- is to 'prune' the animal's horn, rather than to cut the whole thing off. Poachers want as much horn as possible, so they cut low, even into the bone. Animals can survive cut and broken horns, but not butchery with a chainsaw.)

[shraby]

7. Thanks. I didn't know that.

[tabatha]

3. EXTINCT: The world’s last Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus was murdered for her small horn.

It is terrible what is going on. This site chronicles all of the atrocities.
http://www.rhinoconservation.org/

[zalinda]

4. Part of the problem is the poverty

When faced with making enough money for your family to live in some comfort for years or killing an animal, even an endangered one, killing will win out, most of the time.

People will do what they have to do to survive. Education also helps. Those who seek the horn are ignorant, superstitious people, most likely Chinese that have made a lot of money in the China boom. While some Chinese medicine is valid, other parts are pure bunk.

zalinda

[eppur_se_muova]

6. I'd love to see the Chinese medicine market flooded with fake rhino horn.

Surpised the Chinese haven't thought of it already.

(Maybe some of them have, and we just don't know it yet ... )

[bananas]

8. Could legalizing prostitution stop people from whoring around?

:popcorn: