An inevitable development.
The rash of rhino horn thefts from European museums has prompted a warning: Remove rhino horns from display.
Rhino horns and heads have recently been stolen from museums in the UK, Germany, and Italy.
The Museums Association reported earlier this week that two museums in the UK have already heeded the warning.
Haslemere Museum has removed its remaining rhino heads from the premises following the theft, and its website states it will no longer store rhino material. The Horniman Museum in London has also removed all rhino horn from display until it can reassess its security arrangements.
Last month, a rhino head was stolen from the Haslemere Educational Museum in Surrey, England.
Natural Science Collections Association (NatSCA) and the natural history curator at the Horniman Museum, Paolo Viscardi, suggested that in addition to the rhino horn itself, information about the collections should be taken off museum websites.
Museums should also temporarily remove references to rhino horn collections from online collection databases as it makes it easy for these organised criminal gangs to find.
The NatSCA further recommends that museums conduct security audits, remove rhino horn from display, and place it in a secure location.
Do not publicise your rhino material. Thefts have targeted rhino horn that is on display or has been publicised in some way.
Further information can be found at the Rhino Horn Guidance for Museums page on the NatSCA website.
Behind these rhino horn thefts – and the slaughter of hundreds of rhinos – is the demand for rhino horn, which has skyrocketed since 2007.
One of the major catalysts for the crisis is believed to be China’s multimillion dollar rhino horn scheme, which encourages the use of rhino horn.
However, rhino horn has been extensively analyzed and actually contains no medicinal properties.
Photo © Saving Rhinos LLC
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