Should the rhino horn trade be legalised?

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 2:56p.m.

Rhinos have existed for more than 50 million years.

In the past, they were much more diverse and widespread in North America and Europe as well as in Africa and Asia.

Only five species of rhino survive in Africa and South East Asia today. All rhinos are under the severe threat of extinction.

The primary threat facing rhinos today is poaching. Endangered rhinos throughout Africa and Asia are slaughtered for their horns, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine and in the Middle East to make ceremonial daggers.

Rhino horn is traded throughout the world on the black market fetching enough money to fuel illegal trade.

International trade in rhino horns was banned in 1977 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) after a wave of poaching threatened to destroy rhino populations in Africa and the Far East.

South Africa, which still allows trophy hunting under a permit system, also imposed a moratorium on the domestic sale of rhino products and horns in 2009 following a dramatic upsurge in rhino poaching in over the past four years.

The black market demand for horn has reached the point where more rhinos were killed in South Africa last year than the combined total over the previous decade. In 2000 only seven poaching incidents were reported nationally. In 2010 the figure went up to 330 rhinos and by September 2011 it is already at 279 rhinos.

The situation has become so grave that the South African government deployed the Army in April this year in the hard hit Kruger National Park, which has lost 169 rhinos this year. The soldiers have brought down poaching fatalities, but have pushed hunters onto private reserves.

The government is also investigating de-horning its rhino population and stopping legal trophy hunts to fight the poaching crisis.

Rhino farmer John Hume, owner of Mauricedale game ranch in the vicinity of Kruger National Park, has been de-horning his rhinos for the last three years after poachers targeted his farm.

However, he believes the recent anti-poaching efforts by the government in the nearby Kruger reserve have driven poachers to his farm again. Two rhinos were killed by poachers within a month – both had recently been de-horned.

"We have had a recurrence of poaching here so we will have to de-horn our rhinos even more often and triple up on our anti-poaching," said Mr Hume. "We believe that it's because the Army has had a lot of success in the Kruger National Park with poachers, and we are told that poachers are probably not having an easy time in Kruger Park any more."

South Africa holds about 93 percent of the African population of white rhino and critically endangered black rhino. The current white rhino population in South Africa is about 18,000 with approximately one third living on private land.

Mr Hume has been farming rhinos for years and believes legalising the horn trade would help to save the animals from poachers.

According to Mr Hume, there are two main sectors of the rhino farming community involved in slaughtering the animals - one being the farmers who breed their animals for hunting.

The hunters apply for a permit to hunt a rhino. When the animal is shot by a permit-holding hunter, it can be legally exported out of the country as a trophy. Mr Hume says that way of taking possession of the precious horn has been widely used by foreign consumers.

The other group are the farmers who do not want to go through the red tape of getting a permit to hunt a rhino. They contact illegal dealers, shoot the rhino, secretly bury the carcass and so make their illegal profits.

Mr Hume believes legalising the horn trade would make farmers more interested in keeping their animals alive to harvest the horn which re-grows in three years.

Recent poaching attacks prompted his farm manager to make the de-horning more frequent so the horn does not grow too big and attract the poachers. Originally, de-horning has been performed once every two years. They now do it every 18 months.

Horns, once cut off, get registered and sent away to safe storage areas.

De-horning is a complicated medical procedure which has to be performed by a certified veterinarian familiar with immobilising techniques.

Martine van Zijll Langhout, a graduate of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, has been practicing in South Africa for three years.

She said de-horning is not traumatic for the rhino. The whole procedure takes less than 20 minutes - darting the animal with anaesthetic drug, cutting off the horn and waking the animal up again.

"The rhino is much safer without a horn unfortunately these days. It's horrible that we have to do it, but it really helps them to be safer," she said.

Ms van Zijll Langhout works for a private company, Wildlife Vets, which runs courses for students, qualified veterinarians and game farmers in wildlife management and education.

A certified vet from Britain, Jonathan Cranston, who was on a chemical immobilisation course with Wildlife Vets together with students and professional vets from the US, New Zealand and South Africa said he had been unaware the poaching crisis in South Africa had reached unprecedented proportions.

"I don't think outside of Africa people really realise what the massive problem is with poaching in this country. There [are] one to two rhinos being poached every day in South Africa for a commodity which is something that constantly re-grows," Mr Cranston said. "It just seems totally barbaric to me and I just don't think the wider world fully understands what is going on and how desperate the situation is out here."

Farming the rhino for its horn has raised a lot of controversy around the world.

Some conservationists claim that selling parts from captive-bred creatures would not result in a halt of illegally traded animal parts and would instead fuel demand.

"If we legalise rhino horn, we have massive markets in Asia. We are probably looking close to two billion people just on the Asian block, and certainly we will not be able to have enough rhino to satisfy that," argued Miranda Jordan, an animal rights campaigner from Johannesburg.

The rhino horn is predominantly sold to buyers in the East. Since ancient times in China, the most important use of rhinoceros horn has been as an antipyretic medicine to reduce fever.

Powdered rhinoceros horn is, traditionally, classified as a cold drug - indicated for hot diseases and thus suitable for cooling the blood and counteracting toxins. It is believed to be effective in reducing persistent high fevers, aiding in blood clotting, and as a tranquiliser.

More recently, there have been claims of it having the ability to cure cancer. It is not, despite many misconceptions, used as an aphrodisiac.

Unlike its counterpart, ivory, rhino horn has limited use for ornamental purposes.

In the Middle Eastern country of Yemen, the horn continues to be coveted by Muslim men, even though imports were banned in 1982. It is used for the handles of curved daggers, considered a sign of manhood and devotion to the Muslim religion.

3 News / Reuters