In reading the latest story about the dwindling Java rhinos, one has to wonder about the ignorance of people buying those poached rhino horns. Human greed for the superstitious “magical” aphrodisiac contained in rhino horns has promoted the superstition of improved sexual prowess. This seventh century evil myth has threatened to destroy the unfortunate rhino, caught up in this evil superstition.
Do poachers simply remove the horn and leave the animal to grow another? This solution is too easy because they are creating an international crime, they shoot, snare, injure the animal to slowly die by bleeding out. How the world remains silent on this vicious crime makes no sense to animal lovers. One puppy or kitten cruelly treated can fill the Internet with outcries of anger, but one beautiful rhino, defenseless against poachers becomes a story many people flip through and past.
Whether those poached rhino horns are turned into “sugar pill placebo aphrodisiacs” or sold to Yemen tribal people for ceremonial knives (outlawed in 1985), the results are the same, the dwindling of species, some to the point of extinction. A survey of the rare Java rhino and the lack of female rhinos may spell the end of these animals a loss not only to the future generations, but another horrible sign that human greed never considers future effects of covert actions.
On October 25, 2011, the Java rhino in Vietnam was officially declared extinct. Now that the Vietnamese have managed to allow the destruction of their own species, they are looking to other sources. 2011 to date, 287 rhinos have been illegally poached in South Africa, many from protected areas as professional hunters swoop in with helicopters and high-powered rifles and massacre the animals all for the greed of Asians (and Yemenis) eager to pay whatever the cost for the equivalent of human hair and nails, but at a world loss of another rhino.
Again, the evil myth the rhino horn provides some magical power rears its ugly head as people pay thousands, perhaps millions for a piece of keratin, the same keratin in human nails, teeth, skin and hair. Think for a moment, if human beings have an abundance of the protein keratin on their bodies, how will the keratin of a rhino horn provide some additional magical sexual prowess? The evil myth was created before man had identified the elements in the rhino horn.
Education is an important factor in stopping the gruesome killing of rhinos for their horns. With the Asian economy growing, especially in China, the world should be concerned about the Asian dirty myths that rhino horns, tiger bones, bear part etc. have some magical cure. The poor cannot afford these so-called cures, which means the rich and educated are paying to poach animals worldwide because they have erroneously clung to cultural beliefs based on evil myths from a time when animals were plentiful, modern medicine unavailable and the sources often far away.
Notice how China and other nations with their emerging middle-class and rich classes are now grasping at the world’s resources at alarming rates. One way to stop all this worldwide poaching is for China to completely ban the import of illegal rhino horns, the possession of rhino horns and impose swift and deep penalties for people who break their law. Will this happen? Considering that China promotes “traditional” and “modern” as equal in medical treatments, the world will need to be involved to pressure China, Yemen, Vietnam and other places to immediately stop poaching PERIOD.
Poaching should be treated the same as drug smuggling is in many countries, with stiff penalties affecting both the poacher and the buyer to stop the marketing of these illegal horns. Rhinos should not be brutally killed or maimed and left to die slowly because this is a cruel and despicable practice. Wildlife conservators should investigate the concept of rhino farms where horns can be harvested safely, humanely and sold openly on a market that can be regulated by conservators worldwide.
Ignorance about this evil myth will be difficult to eradicate. Rhino horn as an effective aphrodisiac is an irrational superstition ingrained in the culture of people and will take strong actions to remove. The question becomes, can rhinos survive long enough to live in freedom of some poacher suddenly shooting or maiming them and sawing a horn off why they lay there dying? How long will the world tolerate this cruelty?
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/rhinoceros/rhino-horn-use-fact-vs-fiction/1178/
http://news.yahoo.com/survey-rare-javan-rhinos-finds-few-females-114420419.html