Aug 23

Poisoning horns is not a solution to the rhino poaching crisis

By David Braun

Circulating on Facebook today is a news report that purports to come from the "Bangkok Star," a newspaper that doesn't seem to have a website.

"A woman mourns over the body of her deceased husband after he had purchased apparently purposely contaminated Rhino horn on the open market in Bangkok," says the report, which is accompanied by a photograph ostensibly illustrating this situation.

According to the report:

"The source of the contamination is still to be verified but it is thought to be from a private game farm somewhere in southern Africa. Officials in Thailand are frantic to identify the source, as the powdered horn is sold in miniscule amounts and they have no idea how much has already been distributed thoughout Bangkok. Local hospitals are on standby for an unprecendented influx of new cases. Officials are unable get information as the rhino horn dealers in Bangkok are being unco-operative. They neither want to be fingered as being the provider of the poisoned horn, not do they want to reveal their illegal international sources. It is believed that private game farm owners in southern Africa are colluding between themselves to distribute an effective poison that is harmless to the animals but harmful, or even fatal as in this case, to those that ingest the contaminated horn.

"A game farm owner from the North West Province who obviously wishes to remain anonymous, has admitted to using the poison on 4 of his animals."

The report is questionable, and not least because of the attribution to the mysterious "Bangkok Star."

Is it really feasible to impregnate an entire horn with sufficient quantities of poison to make it lethal to anyone who consumes a tiny shaving of it in traditional medicine?

Consumers of traditional medicine containing rhino horn have only the word of the criminal syndicates who poach rhinos that the so-called medicines actually contain rhino horn. How could they verify that what is bought covertly under the counter is what the crooks say it is?

Users are probably being fooled twice--rhino horn contains no medicinal properties (Rhino horn: All myth, no medicine) and the traditional medicines they're buying almost certainly don't contain rhino horn anyway. It's a perfect scam: Rhino horn is utterly useless as a medicine or tonic so you could bottle any powder and call it rhino horn--either way it won't have any effect so there is no way users can tell the difference.

The unscrupulous people involved in this bloody trade feel nothing about slaughtering rhinos by the hundred, depriving South Africans of their natural heritage and exterminating a noble animal from the Earth. They would not feel any obligation to actually sell rhino horn to the gullible who think the horn can boost their health or sexual vitality. The ghastly trade is fueled by superstition, greed and skullduggery.

Rhinos are being exterminated for no reason other than to make wicked people rich. And the riches to be made boggle the mind. It's been reported that buyers in Vietnam and China are willing to pay as much as U.S.$1,000,000 for a single rhino horn. It's the kind of money that can fund poaching with helicopters, night-vision scopes, assault rifles, bribes for crooked security and conservation officials, and "mules" to smuggle horns across international borders.

Rhino poaching has become such a crisis in South Africa that some owners of private game parks and conservation activists have been threatening to poison rhino horns with cyanide or some other toxin that would be lethal to anyone who consumed products containing horn.

The motivation behind such thinking is that if the demand for rhino horn can be dried up out of fear of being poisoned the poachers will have no incentive to kill rhinos. Many good people have applauded the idea.

But we should think this through. Poisoning a consumer of rhino horn would be murder. People who have been taking rhino horn for decades could be hurt or worse. Innocent people who might not even know they are taking rhino horn could die. The people who actually do the poaching and smuggling--and who finance the whole sordid business--would probably be unharmed.

A better way to tackle the consumer side of the rhino trade is education. The governments of the consumer countries need to promote general awareness that rhino horn is completely useless as a medication. There needs to be high-profile publicity of the scams involving using fake rhino horn in traditional medicine, so users may think twice before they part with their money.

Illegal wildlife traders and smugglers should be dealt with harshly--but each country's judicial system must decide how best to do this within the law and due process.

Mass stealthy poisoning is not a good solution to the rhino poaching crisis.