I find poaching of Rhino and Elephant more than a little distressing, I abhor whaling too, just for the record. Why human beings want to destroy the most amazing creations of nature is beyond me. I mean, I can understand the profit motive in the hey day of whaling, even though I don't like it, and I can understand that ivory can be beautiful, although no carved ivory can possibly invoke the wonder inspired by a fully grown elephant, but when it comes to Rhino you have to add in the absurdity of the fact that the monetary value of Rhino horn comes from grinding it down, to pander to a stupid superstition still held by large numbers of Asian people who now have the money to pay ridiculous sums for a worthless, in terms of efficacy, powder. All at the expense of dwindling stocks of magnificent animals.
I hope the Chinese and others coming to Western Universities really are learning something and taking it home because whilst I'm all in favour of more armed and physical protection of animals in game reserves, surely education is the only long term cure. There is no such thing as a cure all and I seriously doubt that Rhino horn cures anything. And if anyone can show that it does I'm sure we can make any active ingredient synthetically.
Malcolm Snook
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