At the end of last year, we ran an article about a new innovation in the war against poaching of rhino out in the wild. The article featured how the Internet of Things (IoT) and zebras can be used to protect rhinos.
In that article we talked about how silly it is kill a rhino for its horns. Well, it is actually really stupid when you think about it. Rhino, the entire of it, is killed for (drum rolls please), its horns. Not its meat, bones, skin, or hides. It’s horn for crying out loud.
What’s so special about Rhino’s horn? Nothing, it’s as useless as a cut fingernail
The biggest market for rhino’s horns is China. Where it is sold by unscrupulous businessmen for its ‘medicinal value.’ However, let us stop and investigate just exactly makes up this rhinoceros horns.
Well, they are made up of keratin. The same protein substance that makes up the human nails on your fingers and toes. That is to say, a rhino’s horn is as good as a human nail. So you wonder why these ‘businessmen’ have to take the trouble of coming to Africa, go out into the jungle and hunt down a rhino. Then there is the logistics problem of shipping the horns out of Africa and into the Chinese market. They must bribe some authorities here and there, pay so much for labor, and transport among other expenses.
All for something they can easily obtain from the nails people cut and throw away every day. You would think it will make economic sense to pick up the nail cutting from people’s homes and collect them then use it for the purported medicinal value of keratin. That is what they are actually after in the rhino horns.
Why go to so much trouble for something that is readily available. And for the buyers of the supposed medicine made out of rhino horns, why not collect nail cuttings from your own home over the months. Then ask for the recipe and prepare the medicine in your own kitchen. I bet it will be a whole lot cheaper than going into the black market to buy outlawed contraband.
African Wildlife Foundation partnered with Chinese celebs to debunk medicinal value of Rhino horns
They are doing a social media campaign to debunk the medicinal value of rhino horns. Proving they have no medicinal value; at least not any more than human nail cuttings does.