Rhinoceros
their horns are worth more than their weight in gold
Since 2007, there has been a 3000% increase in the amount of rhino illegally slaughtered in South Africa.
Their horns are worth more than their weight in gold. This and habitat loss have made the rhino one of the most endangered animals on the planet. To ensure any future survival, the protection and conservation of these animals has reached a critical status.
It has been scientifically proven that aphrodisiacs, traditional medicines and beauty treatments made from rhino horn have absolutely no effect what so ever. You may as well use your toe nail clippings.
The illegal rhino horn trade is responsible for decimating the
world’s rhino population by more than 90 percent over the past 40 years.
The 2009 report African and Asian Rhinoceroses–Status, Conservation and Trade (IUCN/TRAFFIC) -- see document below -- revealed that illegal trade in rhino horn, particularly in southern Africa, had become progressively worse since 2006.
“The combined loss of horns from poaching, thefts from natural mortalities, government stocks and other private collections, abuse of legal trophy hunting and illegal private sector sales suggests that a minimum of 1,521 rhino horns were destined for illegal trade in this time period. Compared to the six-year period 2000-2005 when a minimum of 664 horns were acquired for illicit trade purposes, this figure represents a two-fold increase in the annual illegal rhino horn trade in less than four years,” the report states.
“The combined loss of horns from poaching, thefts from natural mortalities, government stocks and other private collections, abuse of legal trophy hunting and illegal private sector sales suggests that a minimum of 1,521 rhino horns were destined for illegal trade in this time period. Compared to the six-year period 2000-2005 when a minimum of 664 horns were acquired for illicit trade purposes, this figure represents a two-fold increase in the annual illegal rhino horn trade in less than four years,” the report states.
Illegal rhino horn trade shifts from Yemen to China and Vietnam
In addition to the increase in trade, the 2009 study found that the majority of African rhino horns were now headed for traditional medicine markets in China and Vietnam. This indicated a shift from the previous destination of Yemen, for the purpose of crafting dagger handles known as jambiyas.
“Currently, most rhino horns leaving southern Africa are destined for end-use markets in southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam and China; available evidence does not (at this time) implicate Yemen, another traditional end-use market in this trade,” says the IUCN/TRAFFIC report.
There had been a similar increase in illegal rhino horn movement from Nepal and India during the same time period.
“The major trade route for horns is from Assam to Kathmandu in Nepal, via Siliguri, and then on to Tibet. The ultimate destination for this horn is believed to be other markets in China.”
Rhino horn is a time-honored component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). For thousands of years, TCM has credited rhino horn with the potency to cure an unusually wide array of maladies, from headaches to pus-filled boils–and even devil possession.
Today, decades of conservation efforts are at risk of being undermined by what appears to be a reinvigorated TCM market in China and Vietnam.
But does rhino horn really have any useful medicinal properties?
Rhino horn ‘prescribed for nearly everything’
Rhino horn has been an essential ingredient in traditional chinese medicine for centuries. An unfortunate proximity to China explains why the combined total of the three Asian rhino species (Javan, Sumatran, and greater one-horned rhino) is still smaller than Africa’s critically endangered black rhino population.
Despite China being a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and banning trade in rhinoceros horn and its derivatives in 1993, current rhino poaching levels suggest that the use of rhino horn continues unabated in traditional medicine markets.
According to Bernard Read’s 1931 translation of Li Shih-chen’s 1597 materia medica Pen Ts’ ao Kang Mu, rhino horn was prescribed for nearly everything: “To cure devil possession and keep away all evil spirits and miasmas. For gelsemium poisoning. To remove hallucinations and bewitching nightmares. Continuous administration lightens the body and makes one very robust. For typhoid, headache and feverish colds. For carbuncles and boils full of pus. For intermittent fevers with delirium. To expel fear and anxiety, to calm the liver and clear the vision. It is a sedative to the viscera, a tonic, antipyretic. It dissolves phlegm. It is an antidote to the evil miasma of hill streams. For infantile convulsions and dysentery. Ashed and taken with water to treat violent vomiting, food poisoning, and overdosage of poisonous drugs. For arthritis, melancholia, loss of the voice.”
Ironically, it seems the only condition rhino horn is not prescribed for is a lagging libido.
Putting rhino horn to the test
In an effort to educate the public about the alleged curative properties of rhino horn, several scientific studies have been commissioned.
Testing was carried out in 1983 by researchers at Hoffmann-LaRoche, and followed up 25 years later with a study at the Zoological Society of London. Both studies arrived at the same conclusion: Rhino horn contains no medical properties.
Additionally, research conducted in 1990 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong was unable to produce evidence to support the wild claims of rhino horn’s curative power.
Rhino horn ‘is of no use to anyone except the original owner’
In1983 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published the results of a pharmacological study conducted by researchers at Hoffmann-LaRoche in The Environmentalist. - see embed document below -
The study “found no evidence that rhino horn has any medicinal effect as an antipyretic and would be ineffective in reducing fever, a common usage in much of Asia.”
“Rhino horn, like fingernails, is made of agglutinated hair.”
Testing also confirmed that “rhino horn, like fingernails, is made of agglutinated hair” and “has no analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmolytic nor diuretic properties” and “no bactericidal effect could be found against suppuration and intestinal bacteria.”
The above text is an excerpt of an article published in the National Geographic. To read the entire article, please go to the link.
In addition to the increase in trade, the 2009 study found that the majority of African rhino horns were now headed for traditional medicine markets in China and Vietnam. This indicated a shift from the previous destination of Yemen, for the purpose of crafting dagger handles known as jambiyas.
“Currently, most rhino horns leaving southern Africa are destined for end-use markets in southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam and China; available evidence does not (at this time) implicate Yemen, another traditional end-use market in this trade,” says the IUCN/TRAFFIC report.
There had been a similar increase in illegal rhino horn movement from Nepal and India during the same time period.
“The major trade route for horns is from Assam to Kathmandu in Nepal, via Siliguri, and then on to Tibet. The ultimate destination for this horn is believed to be other markets in China.”
Rhino horn is a time-honored component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). For thousands of years, TCM has credited rhino horn with the potency to cure an unusually wide array of maladies, from headaches to pus-filled boils–and even devil possession.
Today, decades of conservation efforts are at risk of being undermined by what appears to be a reinvigorated TCM market in China and Vietnam.
But does rhino horn really have any useful medicinal properties?
Rhino horn ‘prescribed for nearly everything’
Rhino horn has been an essential ingredient in traditional chinese medicine for centuries. An unfortunate proximity to China explains why the combined total of the three Asian rhino species (Javan, Sumatran, and greater one-horned rhino) is still smaller than Africa’s critically endangered black rhino population.
Despite China being a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and banning trade in rhinoceros horn and its derivatives in 1993, current rhino poaching levels suggest that the use of rhino horn continues unabated in traditional medicine markets.
According to Bernard Read’s 1931 translation of Li Shih-chen’s 1597 materia medica Pen Ts’ ao Kang Mu, rhino horn was prescribed for nearly everything: “To cure devil possession and keep away all evil spirits and miasmas. For gelsemium poisoning. To remove hallucinations and bewitching nightmares. Continuous administration lightens the body and makes one very robust. For typhoid, headache and feverish colds. For carbuncles and boils full of pus. For intermittent fevers with delirium. To expel fear and anxiety, to calm the liver and clear the vision. It is a sedative to the viscera, a tonic, antipyretic. It dissolves phlegm. It is an antidote to the evil miasma of hill streams. For infantile convulsions and dysentery. Ashed and taken with water to treat violent vomiting, food poisoning, and overdosage of poisonous drugs. For arthritis, melancholia, loss of the voice.”
Ironically, it seems the only condition rhino horn is not prescribed for is a lagging libido.
Putting rhino horn to the test
In an effort to educate the public about the alleged curative properties of rhino horn, several scientific studies have been commissioned.
Testing was carried out in 1983 by researchers at Hoffmann-LaRoche, and followed up 25 years later with a study at the Zoological Society of London. Both studies arrived at the same conclusion: Rhino horn contains no medical properties.
Additionally, research conducted in 1990 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong was unable to produce evidence to support the wild claims of rhino horn’s curative power.
Rhino horn ‘is of no use to anyone except the original owner’
In1983 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published the results of a pharmacological study conducted by researchers at Hoffmann-LaRoche in The Environmentalist. - see embed document below -
The study “found no evidence that rhino horn has any medicinal effect as an antipyretic and would be ineffective in reducing fever, a common usage in much of Asia.”
“Rhino horn, like fingernails, is made of agglutinated hair.”
Testing also confirmed that “rhino horn, like fingernails, is made of agglutinated hair” and “has no analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmolytic nor diuretic properties” and “no bactericidal effect could be found against suppuration and intestinal bacteria.”
The above text is an excerpt of an article published in the National Geographic. To read the entire article, please go to the link.
!!!
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Rhino poaching in South Africa reaches all-time
The yearly total is the highest ever experienced in South Africa and nearly triple 2009
when 122 rhinos were killed in the country.
when 122 rhinos were killed in the country.
Posted on 12 January 2011
The yearly total is the highest ever experienced in South Africa and nearly triple 2009 when 122 rhinos were killed in the country.
An additional five rhinos have been lost to poaching since the new year.
Kruger National Park, the world famous safari destination, was hardest hit losing 146 rhinos to poaching in 2010, authorities said. The park is home to the largest populations of both white and black rhinos in the country.
Rhinos constitute one of the much-revered “Big 5” of African wildlife tourism, including elephants, lions, leopards and Cape buffalo.
Rhino poaching across Africa has risen sharply in the past few years, threatening to reverse hard-won population increases achieved by conservation authorities during the 20th century.
The first alarming yearly spike occurred in 2008 when 83 rhinos were lost. South Africa has responded by intensifying its law enforcement efforts, and made approximately 162 poaching arrests last year.
“Many more successful convictions, backed up by appropriately daunting penalties will significantly demonstrate the South African government’s commitment to preventing the clouding of the country’s excellent rhino conservation track record that it has built up over the past several decades,” said Dr. Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa.
The current wave of poaching is being committed by sophisticated criminal networks using helicopters, night-vision equipment, veterinary tranquilisers and silencers to kill rhinos at night while attempting to avoid law enforcement patrols.
“The criminal syndicates operating in South Africa are highly organised and use advanced technologies. They are very well coordinated,” said Dr. Joseph Okori, WWF African Rhino Programme Manager. “This is not typical poaching.”
The recent killing increase is largely due to heightened demand for rhino horn, which has long been prized as an ingredient in traditional Asian medicine. It has been claimed recently that rhino horn possesses cancer-curing properties, despite there being no medical evidence to support the assertion.
“Only a concerted international enforcement pincer movement, at both ends of the supply and demand chain, can hope to nip this rhino poaching crisis in the bud,” said Tom Milliken, Director of TRAFFIC’s East and Southern Africa programme.
Milliken pointed to recently established coordination links between officials in South Africa and Vietnam, the country heavily implicated in the recent poaching surge.
South Africa is home to approximately 21,000 rhinos, more than any other country in the world.
Black rhinos are listed as critically endangered with only about 4,200 remaining in existence, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Approximately 1,670 black rhinos were believed to be living in South Africa in 2009. The country's other resident species, white rhinos, are classified as near threatened on IUCN’s Red List of threatened species.
“The recovery of African white rhinos from less than 100 in the late 19th century to more than 20,000 today is a phenomenal conservation success story that can largely be attributed to the combined efforts of South Africa’s state and private conservation authorities.
Consumers of rhino horn across Asia, and in Vietnam in particular, are now seriously compromising this achievement by motivating criminal groups to kill rhinos. In order to halt this massacre, substantial resources need to go into law enforcement, both in Africa and in Asian consumer countries where all trade in rhino horn is illegal," said Dr. du Plessis.
Source
Britain urges Asia to act over surging trade in rhinoceros horn
Belief it can cure cancer has led to a huge rise in poaching of endangered animals
Monday, 15 August 2011
Britain is to ask China, Vietnam and other Asian countries to tell their citizens that rhino horn has no medicinal value, in an attempt to halt a wave of rhino poaching that may drive the endangered animals to extinction.
Although long known as a powdered ingredient in traditional Asian medicine, a recent belief in its power to cure cancer has seen prices for rhino horn surge to £50,000 a kilogram – more than the price of gold or cocaine.
The sky-high price has sparked a spate of museum burglaries in Britain and Europe, with mounted rhino trophy heads being targeted for the value of the horn. More significantly, it has directly produced a substantial surge in rhino poaching in southern Africa.
Between 2000 and 2007, South Africa saw about 12 rhinos poached each year, but by 2010 it had reached 333. This year, more than 200 have already been killed and conservationists are increasingly alarmed about the future of the species, with most of its populations already classified as critically endangered.
Now Britain is putting forward a request on behalf of the European Union for Asian nations to mount "appropriately targeted" awareness-raising campaigns for their citizens, highlighting the lack of evidence in support of the horn's alleged medicinal properties. British officials will speak at a week-long meeting, beginning in Geneva today, of the committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
"The demand for rhino horn in traditional Asian medicine is driving a new wave of poaching and the decline of rhino populations," Richard Benyon, the UK Wildlife minister, said. "The price is now very high. But rhino horn is basically keratin, which is the same stuff as our hair and fingernails, and it has no healing properties.
"The world community cannot sit back and just watch these species disappear, and we want to help debunk the myth of rhino horn's healing powers."
Mr Benyon denied the request would be seen as interfering in the internal affairs of countries such as China and Vietnam. "I don't think it is preachy – it's just asking these counties to recognise that there is a problem within their borders," he said.
The proposal, which Britain sponsored through the EU, also asks all member states of Cites to tighten up controls on the trade in rhino horn and seeks the establishment of a working group to make recommendations for the next full meeting of Cites in two years.
Commerce in the world's five species of rhino – white, black, Indian, Javan and Sumatran – is banned by Cites, except for populations of the southern white rhino in South Africa and Swaziland, whose products can legally be traded with permits. It is possible the next Cites meeting will change this.
Traditional Asian medicine has been blamed for forcing the decline of other endangered species through poaching, notably the tiger, whose body parts are prized.
The demand for rhino horn is based on what is considered a modern urban myth, widely circulating in Asia – that a senior politician in Vietnam who was allegedly dying of liver cancer was cured after taking a dose of powdered rhino horn.
Although the story is frequently repeated, no one can actually put a name to the politician, supposed to be a former Vietnamese prime minister. Yet this has not stopped it from driving the price to unprecedented levels.
Britain tightened its own regulations on the export of rhinoceros horn last year after wildlife-trade officials noticed that horn and other rhino products – such as antique trophy heads – were beginning to fetch huge sums at auction and were often being re-exported to the Far East.
Now it is virtually impossible to get a permit to export rhino horn from Britain. Earlier this year, the Government persuaded the EU to bring in a similar tightening of regulations across its 27 member states.
Yet, at the same time, a series of targeted burglaries began in museums holding rhino heads in Britain and in continental Europe. Last month burglars broke into Ipswich Museum and sawed off the 18in horn of Rosie, the head of an Indian rhino that had been there since 1907.
In February, the mounted head of a black rhino was taken from Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex. And in May a similar head was taken from the Educational Museum in Haslemere, Surrey.
In Belgium, there have been three such raids on museums in less than two months, the most recent being 10 days ago at the Africa Museum in Namur.
Rhinos at risk
There are five species of rhinoceros. All except the southern species of the white rhino are regarded as threatened.
* The white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) is split between two sub-species. The southern white is the most abundant type, with more than 17,000 known worldwide, of which the majority are in South Africa. By contrast, the northern white rhino is probably extinct in the wild; four were last seen in 2006 in the Democratic Republic of Congo but no further signs have been seen since then, despite intensive surveys. A small number of the animals survive in captivity.
* The black rhino (Diceros bicornis), which is found in southern Africa, is listed as critically endangered; about 5,000 remain.
* The great Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) is found only in India, Bhutan, Burma and Nepal and is listed as 'vulnerable'; fewer than 3,000 remain.
* The Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is found only in Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam and is listed as critically endangered; perhaps fewer than 300 animals remain.
* The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is found only in Indonesia and Malaysia, is critically endangered and is perhaps the rarest large mammal on earth, with fewer than 50 of the creatures remaining
Source: The Independent
Britain is to ask China, Vietnam and other Asian countries to tell their citizens that rhino horn has no medicinal value, in an attempt to halt a wave of rhino poaching that may drive the endangered animals to extinction.
Although long known as a powdered ingredient in traditional Asian medicine, a recent belief in its power to cure cancer has seen prices for rhino horn surge to £50,000 a kilogram – more than the price of gold or cocaine.
The sky-high price has sparked a spate of museum burglaries in Britain and Europe, with mounted rhino trophy heads being targeted for the value of the horn. More significantly, it has directly produced a substantial surge in rhino poaching in southern Africa.
Between 2000 and 2007, South Africa saw about 12 rhinos poached each year, but by 2010 it had reached 333. This year, more than 200 have already been killed and conservationists are increasingly alarmed about the future of the species, with most of its populations already classified as critically endangered.
Now Britain is putting forward a request on behalf of the European Union for Asian nations to mount "appropriately targeted" awareness-raising campaigns for their citizens, highlighting the lack of evidence in support of the horn's alleged medicinal properties. British officials will speak at a week-long meeting, beginning in Geneva today, of the committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
"The demand for rhino horn in traditional Asian medicine is driving a new wave of poaching and the decline of rhino populations," Richard Benyon, the UK Wildlife minister, said. "The price is now very high. But rhino horn is basically keratin, which is the same stuff as our hair and fingernails, and it has no healing properties.
"The world community cannot sit back and just watch these species disappear, and we want to help debunk the myth of rhino horn's healing powers."
Mr Benyon denied the request would be seen as interfering in the internal affairs of countries such as China and Vietnam. "I don't think it is preachy – it's just asking these counties to recognise that there is a problem within their borders," he said.
The proposal, which Britain sponsored through the EU, also asks all member states of Cites to tighten up controls on the trade in rhino horn and seeks the establishment of a working group to make recommendations for the next full meeting of Cites in two years.
Commerce in the world's five species of rhino – white, black, Indian, Javan and Sumatran – is banned by Cites, except for populations of the southern white rhino in South Africa and Swaziland, whose products can legally be traded with permits. It is possible the next Cites meeting will change this.
Traditional Asian medicine has been blamed for forcing the decline of other endangered species through poaching, notably the tiger, whose body parts are prized.
The demand for rhino horn is based on what is considered a modern urban myth, widely circulating in Asia – that a senior politician in Vietnam who was allegedly dying of liver cancer was cured after taking a dose of powdered rhino horn.
Although the story is frequently repeated, no one can actually put a name to the politician, supposed to be a former Vietnamese prime minister. Yet this has not stopped it from driving the price to unprecedented levels.
Britain tightened its own regulations on the export of rhinoceros horn last year after wildlife-trade officials noticed that horn and other rhino products – such as antique trophy heads – were beginning to fetch huge sums at auction and were often being re-exported to the Far East.
Now it is virtually impossible to get a permit to export rhino horn from Britain. Earlier this year, the Government persuaded the EU to bring in a similar tightening of regulations across its 27 member states.
Yet, at the same time, a series of targeted burglaries began in museums holding rhino heads in Britain and in continental Europe. Last month burglars broke into Ipswich Museum and sawed off the 18in horn of Rosie, the head of an Indian rhino that had been there since 1907.
In February, the mounted head of a black rhino was taken from Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex. And in May a similar head was taken from the Educational Museum in Haslemere, Surrey.
In Belgium, there have been three such raids on museums in less than two months, the most recent being 10 days ago at the Africa Museum in Namur.
Rhinos at risk
There are five species of rhinoceros. All except the southern species of the white rhino are regarded as threatened.
* The white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) is split between two sub-species. The southern white is the most abundant type, with more than 17,000 known worldwide, of which the majority are in South Africa. By contrast, the northern white rhino is probably extinct in the wild; four were last seen in 2006 in the Democratic Republic of Congo but no further signs have been seen since then, despite intensive surveys. A small number of the animals survive in captivity.
* The black rhino (Diceros bicornis), which is found in southern Africa, is listed as critically endangered; about 5,000 remain.
* The great Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) is found only in India, Bhutan, Burma and Nepal and is listed as 'vulnerable'; fewer than 3,000 remain.
* The Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is found only in Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam and is listed as critically endangered; perhaps fewer than 300 animals remain.
* The Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is found only in Indonesia and Malaysia, is critically endangered and is perhaps the rarest large mammal on earth, with fewer than 50 of the creatures remaining
Source: The Independent