South Africa Thinking About Lifting the Ban on Rhino Horns

September 3rd, 2011

This would bring a lucrative but illegal industry to an end

The ban on rhino horns has been in existence for 30 years. Now new thinking is that lifting the ban would prevent unscrupulous individuals from manipulating the permit system and stomp out the cruel poaching, trapping and butchering of the rhinos in order to get their horns. The SA Department of Environmental Affairs has placed two advertisements on its Tender website calling for studies on the subject. A separate study will look into the feasibility of dehorning thousands of rhinos as a way of saving them from the poachers’ bullets.

Rhino killing

Rhinoceros are killed by humans for their horns, which are bought and sold on the black market, and which are used by some cultures for ornamental or pseudo-scientific medicinal purposes. The horns are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails. Both African species and the Sumatran Rhinoceros have two horns, while the Indian and Javan Rhinoceros have a single horn.

Extinction

All five of the world’s diverse species of rhinoceros have been brought to the edge of extinction because of human appetite for their distinctive horns. The horns have been prized for tens of centuries for their beautiful translucent color when carved, and their supposed healing properties.

The ban

International trade in rhino horns was banned in 1977 after a wave of poaching threatened to decimate rhino populations in Africa and the Far East. Fed by international criminal syndicates chasing sky-high profits, the black market demand for horns has reached the point where more rhinos were killed in South Africa last year than the combined total over the previous decade.

Back in history

Historical mentions of the uses for the horns date back thousands of years. In Greek mythology, they were said to possess the ability to purify water. The ancient Persians of the 5th century BC thought that vessels carved from the horn could be used to detect poisoned liquids, causing bubbles in the presence of some poisons, a belief that persisted into the 18th and 19th centuries among the royal courts of Europe. In Yemen, the rhino horn is used for the handles of curved daggers called jambiya.

Uses of rhino horn

Far more pervasive, however, is their use in the traditional medicine systems of many Asian countries, from Malaysia and South Korea to India and China, to cure a variety of ailments. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the horn, which is shaved or ground into a powder and dissolved in boiling water, is used to treat fever, rheumatism, gout, and other disorders. According to the 16th century Chinese pharmacist Li Shi Chen, the horn could also cure snakebites, hallucinations, typhoid, headaches, carbuncles, vomiting, food poisoning, and “devil possession.” It is not, as commonly believed, prescribed as an aphrodisiac.

Science

Now, science is now stepping in to dispel some of the mystery and fiction surrounding the use of rhino horn.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 3rd, 2011 at 3:44 am and is filed under Business, Economy, Finance, Money, Personal / Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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