Fed up with South Africa’s tragic rhino poaching situation, people are talking about injecting rhino horns with poison.
After taking in several baby rhinos whose mothers were murdered by poachers, one man in South Africa has had enough and is taking matters into his own hands.
Mr. Ed Hern, owner of the Rhino and Lion Park near Krugersdorp, is reportedly working with a veterinarian on a controversial idea to deter would-be rhino horn consumers.
According to South Africa’s Independent Online, the pair is devising a way to poison the rhino horns – without harming the rhinos – so that when consumers use “medicines” derived of horns from illegally killed rhinos, they become sick or possibly die.
Although Mr. Hern did not reveal the type of poison or the veterinarian’s name, he made it clear that if any harmful side effects were detected in the rhino, they would stop the testing immediately.
The horn is made of hair, there is no blood flow through it and so far we have not seen any effects. But if someone used the horn as medicine they would get very sick or die.
We’re not waiting to see if the rhino dies. The signs we’re looking for are loss of condition or if it stops eating. Then we would stop.
People are frustrated and ready to do what it takes to protect rhinos from the poaching scourge.
And considering that South Africa has already lost 152 rhinos this year as a result of plundering for rhino horn – who can blame them?
Not everyone agrees
Apparently, lawyers are against Mr. Hern’s plans to lace rhino horns with poison.
I have even consulted lawyers to see what would happen if we did this. They tell me I would get into a lot of trouble.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Faan Coetzee is also skeptical of the idea and said it would be a “criminal offense” for someone to poison rhino horns.
If someone died you could be arrested for murder. We do not think this is a solution.
Arrested for murder?
Whether or not one agrees with poisoning rhino horns, the real crime in this situation is the plundering of South Africa’s rhinos to satisfy the illegal market for rhino horn.
Rhino horn has no curative properties
Rhino poaching is driven by demand for illegal rhino horn – an essential ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. Rhino horn has historically been “prescribed” for conditions such as fever, boils, anxiety – even devil possession.
However, several scientific studies have confirmed that rhino horn – comprised mainly of keratin – actually has no curative properties. The medicinal effect of rhino horn has even been compared to chewing one’s own fingernails.
Source: Independent Online
![Rhino Horns and Trophies Exported to Asia from South Africa 2000 – 2010 [Infographic]](http://www.rhinoconservation.org/wp-content/plugins/special-recent-posts/lib/phpimage.php?width=100&height=100&rotation=no&file=L2hvbWUyL2Jpb2RpdmUxL3B1YmxpY19odG1sL3dwLWNvbnRlbnQvdXBsb2Fkcy8yMDEyLzA1L1JoaW5vVHJvcGhpZXNIb3Juc0luZm9ncmFwaGljVGh1bWJuYWlsLmpwZw==)
I think it is a brilliant idea. I would not be too concerned about being arrested for murder mainly because the consumers are more than likely not South African residents, so to trace where the laced horn they consumed came from would be nearly impossible. The end users (fools that they are) have no idea of the original source of the horn. Let’s wait and see how the veterinarian test go, if they are successful and people do not want to do it for fear of prosecution I am sure there will be many people like me who would do it for them free of charge.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. It would be one way to achieve kick back in the supply chain. And why should we be concerned with the legal ramifications for goods that are sourced illegally. Fight fire with fire.
An alternative, how hard would it be to flood the market with fake rhino horn if its just keratin?
This is an excellent idea. Ii would volunteer to be a different kind of conservationist; I would roam the parks of Africa, and inject all the rhino I came across with the poison. Why should we be concerned about people fuelling poaching? Sorry for them if they die, but at least the rhino will live. Let them use their own rhino for their medicine
What if the tests work in that it doesn’t effect the rhinos to poison their horns – we could then poison some and spread the word worldwide that this is what we are doing in future!! The poachers wouldn’t know which ones were poisoned and which weren’t and maybe they would be a bit more careful!! Fat hope I know but just a suggestion!!
The wanton killing of Rhino’s is very disturbing, but I wonder if the system proposed will not have ramifications to the environment. Will it not affect the insects that live on the Rhino, like ticks etc, which will be eaten by Oxpecker Birds, and so on up the food chain.
I still believe that the way to stop this crime, is to make anyone guilty of having Rhino horns be sentenced to such a punishment which will deter this practice once and for all.
I feel that such crimes deserve the punishment to be in relation to what they do to the Rhinos.
What kind of future do our children have, with the way we humans are behaving, it reminds me of the Lemmings that breed and breed until they commit mass suicide.