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[dc89]

God damn it. Why do people do this?!

 

[NearRivers]

This is incredible in such a terrible way. How could we let almost an entire species cease to exist? It's a rhetorical question, of course, people are often selfish or don't care.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

Supply and demand. We need like a drug to have bigger Asian peepees to save Rhinos.

All because they have dick growing powers. What if we handed out Viagra for free to the word? Would people stop eating tiger dick?

A man's gotta have his folk remedy dick pills, son. If that means killing off an entire species of underachieving triceratops cosplayers, so be it.

There was some article I remembered reading about the actual usage of rhino horn in Vietnam, and it was weird how casual and widespread it was. People just used it out in the open, or got it at restaurants, and it was people from all walks of life.

Another thing was that the whole "dick pills" thing is totally false; they think that it just promotes general health and well-being, and it leads to the sort of quackery where people swear that it cured them of some disease, which causes the naive and the desperate to try it, with the idea that it couldn't hurt to try.


fake edit: found it

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/rhino-wars/gwin-text

The triggers for this gold rush are difficult to pinpoint. Rumors about famous users, rising black market prices, and dwindling numbers of Asian rhinos are all feeding the mania. But behind the hype is a renewed interest in the horn's alleged healing power. For at least 2,000 years, Asian medicine has prescribed rhino horn—ground into powder—to reduce fever and treat a range of maladies. The handful of studies conducted over the past 30 years on its fever reducing properties have proven inconclusive, yet the 2006 edition of a Vietnamese traditional pharmacopoeia devotes two pages to rhino horn.

The newest and most sensational claim is that it cures cancer. Oncologists say that no research has been published on the horn's efficacy as a cancer treatment. But even if rhino horn possesses dubious medicinal properties, that doesn't mean it has no effect on people who take it, says Mary Hardy, medical director of Simms/Mann UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology and a traditional medicine expert. "Belief in a treatment, especially one that is wildly expensive and hard to get, can have a powerful effect on how a patient feels," she says.

To gain insights into the popularity of rhino horn in Vietnam, I traveled the country with a woman I will call Ms. Thien. A mammogram had revealed a spot on her right breast; a sonogram showed a worrisome shadow on an ovary. The attractive and irrepressible 52-year-old planned to seek modern treatment but also wanted to consult traditional doctors. I asked her if she believed rhino horn might help cure her. "I don't know," she said. "But when you think you might die, it can't hurt to try it."

Our travels took us from cancer hospitals and traditional clinics in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to herbal shops, boutiques selling exotic animal skins, and private homes in small towns. We found rhino horn every place we looked.

Most of the users we met belonged to Vietnam's fast-growing middle class and included Western-trained doctors, a bank executive, a mathematician, a real estate salesman, an engineer, and a high school teacher, among others. Often families would pool money to buy a piece of horn and share it. Some donated it to gravely ill friends who couldn't afford it. Mothers gave it to children with measles. Old people swore it cured poor circulation and prevented strokes. Many considered it a sort of super-vitamin.

Although a number of Vietnamese doctors I spoke with said rhino horn was not an effective cure for anything, let alone cancer, several other respected physicians claimed rhino horn could be part of an effective cancer treatment. Some said they prescribed it in pill form as a palliative for patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Others, including Tran Quoc Binh, director of the National Hospital of Traditional Medicine, which is part of Vietnam's Ministry of Health, believe that rhino horn can retard the growth of certain kinds of tumors. "First we start with modern medicine: chemotherapy, radiation, surgery," Tran said. "But after that, maybe some cancer cells still exist. So then we use traditional medicine to fight these cells." He said that a mixture of rhino horn, ginseng, and other herbs could actually block the growth of cancer cells, but he could not produce any peer-reviewed studies to support his claims.

One evening in Hanoi, Ms. Thien and I visited a busy lakeside café recommended to her by a friend who knew of her health concerns. She explained her situation to the owner, and he produced a chunk of amber-colored horn about the size of a bar of soap and a ceramic dish with a drawing of a rhino on the side. The dish's bottom was rough, like fine-grit sandpaper. He poured several ounces of water into the dish and began to rub the horn in a circular motion on the bottom. After a few minutes, the horn gave off an acrid odor, and the water turned a milky white. The other patrons paid no notice. As he rubbed, the café owner explained that he and a friend had bought the horn as a health supplement and hangover preventive, paying $18,000 for about 180 grams. Their interest had been prompted in part by one of Ho Chi Minh's former secretaries, a regular at the café, who told them that Ho, a firm believer in traditional medicine, had taken rhino horn every day.

After 20 minutes of rubbing, the man poured the liquid into two shot glasses and handed one to Ms. Thien and the other to me. It had a faintly gritty texture but otherwise was tasteless. Ms. Thien drained her glass and set it on the table. "I hope it works," she said.

 

[Nightstick11]

Poachers should be publically executed.

 

[Hitokage]

When superstition produces real, tangible harm.

 

[Kurtofan]

I've said it before, i'll say it again. Westen Governments should just go in there and take the lot. The Elephants, Rhinos, everything. And stick them in Australia or Nevada or something.

You never saw the Rescuers Down Under?

 

[DrFurbs]

Why is this a bad idea? The Oz outback seems ideal fit relocation of these animals

 

[cdyhybrid]

love how everyone on here uses the world science like it stands for magic potion.

We could pray for help instead, if it makes you feel better.

 

[ymmv]

Is the western black rhino extinct in the wild "only" perhaps? Are there zoos that still have these animals?

 

[Darklord]

Why is this a bad idea? The Oz outback seems ideal fit relocation of these animals

I'd be okay with Rhino's over here! Being them on!

 

[Toxi]

Some people here seem to be confused about what this means: the black rhino as a species is not extinct. The western subspecies is extinct. The rest are all critically endangered and close to extinction.

Sucks either way.

Did rhinos evolve from triceratops? Just noticed resemblance.

Rhinos are mammals (like people), which aren't in the same clade as dinosaurs. A triceratops's closest living relative would be an alligator.

Despite looking somewhat similar, their horns are different structures. A triceratop's horn has a large bone core, while a rhino's horn is mostly keratin with a calcified interior.

 

[AMUSIX]

Is the western black rhino extinct in the wild "only" perhaps? Are there zoos that still have these animals?

If I'm remembering correctly, there are 6 left. All past breeding age.

OK, just consulted people who know things...I was mistaken. There are NO Western Black Rhinos in captivity anywhere. I was mistakenly thinking of the Northern White Rhino, also extinct in the wild, of which there are 8 total in the world: two at the San Diego Safari Park, two at the Prague Zoo in Czech Republic, and four at a facility in Kenya.

 

[MattKeil]

Did rhinos evolve from triceratops? Just noticed resemblance.

 

[jerry1594]

Some people here seem to be confused about what this means: the black rhino as a species is not extinct. The western subspecies is extinct. The rest are all critically endangered and close to extinction.

Sucks either way.

Rhinos are mammals (like people), which aren't in the same clade as dinosaurs. A triceratops's closest living relative would be an alligator.

Despite looking somewhat similar, their horns are different structures. A triceratop's horn has a large bone core, while a rhino's horn is mostly keratin with a calcified interior.

Triceratops' closest living relative is probably a bird.

 

[ymmv]

If I'm remembering correctly, there are 6 left. All past breeding age.

OK, just consulted people who know things...I was mistaken. There are NO Western Black Rhinos in captivity anywhere. I was mistakenly thinking of the Northern White Rhino, also extinct in the wild, of which there are 8 total in the world: two at the San Diego Safari Park, two at the Prague Zoo in Czech Republic, and four at a facility in Kenya.

Wikipedia says: "Initially, six northern white rhinoceros lived in the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic. Four of the six rhinos (which are also the only reproductive animals of this subspecies) were transported to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, Africa,[2] where scientists hope they will successfully breed and save this subspecies from extinction. One of two remaining in the Czech Republic died in late May 2011.[3] The two other rhinos presently live at the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park in California."

So now there are only 7... And only four of them can breed. Damn.

(And even worse that the western black rhino is gone forever...)

 

[V_Arnold]

Fuck poachers. Absolute scum of the earth.

Let us go more down that supply chain and fuck anyone who wishes to own a piece of stuff made from the Rhino/Elephant/Tiger/etc parts and is prepared to pay premium price for it.

That fucking disgusting demand is what drives poachers. So we can be mad at them or we can look for the cause.

 

[MattKeil]

Triceratops' closest living relative is probably a bird.

And even for that you have to go back to when the line that evolved into ceratopsids diverged from the line that would become saurischians, and that was in the Triassic Period, over a hundred million years before Triceratops walked the earth in the Cretaceous Period. It's fair to say that Triceratops really has no close living relatives.

 

[Nev]

Excuse me for my giant ignorance, but aren't there more... species of Rhino? Does this mean no more Rhinos at all?

 

[jerry1594]

Excuse me for my giant ignorance, but aren't there more... species of Rhino? Does this mean no more Rhinos at all?

It means no more Western Black Rhinoceros, a subspecies of Black Rhino. All Species of rhinoceros are endangered though I think.