Take rhino horn....
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Last
week, poachers on a reserve halfway between Colenso
and Ladysmith used a chainsaw to cut the horn off
a live, heavily drugged white rhino, and left it to
die.
The animal survived, but sustained serious injuries
to its skull and nasal cavity.
The poachers also captured the cow’s month-old
calf and took it away in a helicopter.
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So what is the demand for rhino horn - at
$21000 - $54000 per kilogram - that leads man to such evil,
based on?
Tradition and superstition.
It is common belief that rhino horn is so
valuable because it is used as an aphrodisiac in the Far
East.
This is not true.
The horns have been prized for tens of centuries
for their beautiful translucent color when carved, and their
supposed healing properties.
In the Middle Eastern country of Yemen for
example, the horn continues to be coveted by Muslim men,
although imports were banned in 1982.
The material, whose lustre increases with age, is used for
the handles of curved daggers called “jambiya,”
which are presented to Yemeni boys at age 12.
Jambiya are considered a sign of manhood and devotion to
the Muslim religion, and Yemeni men place great value on
the dagger handles.
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.’
Rhino horns are composed largely of the
protein keratin, also the chief component in hair, fingernails,
and animal hooves.
Overall there isn’t much evidence
to support the plethora of claims about the healing properties
of the horns.
In 1990, researchers at the Chinese University in Hong Kong
found that large doses of rhino horn extract could slightly
lower fever in rats, but the concentration of horn given
by a traditional Chinese medicine specialist are many many
times lower than used in those experiments.
In short, you’d do just as well chewing
on your fingernails.
