Artificial Rhino Horn

You may want to read these before you start production

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/rhinoceros/rhino-horn-use-fact-vs-fiction/1178/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros

True but big money is paid . I hear it is used as an aphrodisiac.

In 1965 I did a survey in Botswana (near the Okavango) and a herd of about 400 passed about a mile from my station.

Today there are less than 100 left.

My God... those responsible for such atrocities should be hung, drawn and then neutered.

To presume for a second that we have the right to so mutiliate another living creature is beyond me. With out a doubt, there is little in the way of "humanity" in humanity. I fear for our survival as a species and question if we should in fact survive.

This looks like the work of the bastards at the World Wildlife Fund and their surrogates..

WWF:- "...the organization, founded in 1961 by a group of wealthy trophy hunters, apparently believes that conserving animals means keeping them around long enough for well-heeled "sportsmen" to blast them out of the woods, oceans, skies, plains of Africa, and jungles of Asia.. "

Can you substantiate a single syllable of your comment?

Would you do so, please.

Lets leave the rhetoric out of this please. I don't care who it was. This is a crime plain and simple and the people who perpetrated it are more of an animal then the poor creatures they tortured.

Lets hope some race of creature from some far of star system is not watching this and then concludes that the left eye ball from a "human being" would make their willie stand and take notice.

This insanity needs to stop...

Nobody is going to buy artificial rhino horn. It's called plastic.

That is some fu%#ed up $hit. If they feel they have to do that, the least they could do is kill them and eat them. Those pictures make me ashamed to be a human.

When they catch people doing this, they need to cut their noses off and turn them loose to fend for themselves.

"When they catch people doing this, they need to cut their noses off and turn them loose to " Who is catching who? In this case, the transgressor has assumed the role of the redresser.. You can't do much when you are dealing with a bunch of ruthless individuals.. Also, according to the Web site of the WWF's Canadian office, "WWF is not an animal welfare organization. . We support the hunting and consumption of wild animals provided the harvesting does not threaten the long-term survival of wildlife populations. . "

When the authorities catch the poachers. This is not hunting. I don't have a problem with hunting for food, although I personally don't do it.

I don't know enough about WWF to comment about them, however, I have heard that they hunt responsibly, they don't hunt endangered species, and they actually spend money to insure the survival of species. I doubt this can be attributed to the WWF.

This is just wrong. I do fish and I kill and eat the fish I catch sometimes, other times I catch and release. If I was to catch a fish and then torture it just for the hell of it, it would be no better than what these pictures depict.

Here in the US people kill bears just to harvest the gall bladder, to ship off to Japan because they think it will increase verility. It's big dollars apparenty. All of this is wrong. The ruthless individuals should at least go ahead and put a bullet in the rhino's brains, as opposed to leaving them to suffer and die from infection.

You were asked in an earlier post to substantiate your remarks. You didn't do it. Why do you continue to undermine a respected animal welfare organization? Many of us have donated to WWF over the years. So put up or shut up!!!

Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?

Perhaps so, but you have been given two opportunities to support your claim and until now have failed to do so. Where is your evidence? Sounds to me like you are talking through your hat.

Honestly, I am reluctant to submit my evidence because the next debate will be the validity of the evidence, and since all that will ensue is another pointless and endless debate, I propose that we look at this matter from a general perspective, and see if we could come to an agreement on some level. First, I claimed that the pictures that were posted were the work of the WWF. In this matter, you may say that the state of the 2 poor hornless rhino's that we see on the pictures could not have been a work of WWF or any other organization or individual who is affiliated with the WWF. And I could agree with you. This may be a work of other entities. However, my point was to let you know and others on this post that the WWF engages in this type of hunting and poaching. And I wanted you to look into this organization to whom you shell out your hard earned dollars from a different perspective. What is their motive? What is their agenda? Imagine, there are countless number of human beings in the world that die of hunger and starvation, is not that a better cause to support. If you say, somebody has to do it, then I would say that the people most fit to do it are the people and the governments of the lands in which these animals reside. What do you think the British do when they go to their safari vacations in Africa. Do you really think they go there to look marvel at wild animals, admire them, take pictures of them. No! they go there to hunt them, blow them out out of the water, because that is what gentlemen do. And this is fact. So, if they need to go to someone else's territory to engage in this kind of activity, don't you think that they need some sort of organization to control and manage the activity. After all, that what falls under the auspices of the US Fish and Wildlife services in the U.S. And that is the sole reason for the organization of the WWF. However, since they have to go to someone else's territory to do so, they needed another moral blanket to justify their existence. Just think about it and look at the individuals like Huxley and Nicholson who started this organization. Look at their profile. *have you ever heard of the British Eugenics Society* Anyways, my advice to you is to save your money and travel more, i.e. if you don't already.

I believe your posts in this thread are libelous unless you can establish that they are true. You are undermining an organization without giving them the opportunity to fight back. I do not believe that the WWF engages in this type of activity...are you suggesting that cutting off the horn of a rhino is hunting?

I am aware of many organizations which solicit funds to aid humans in distress. I support them and contribute as best I can to some of them. I cannot support them all. At the same time, I support organizations whose goal is to prevent animal abuse, usually at the hands of humans and I have supported WWF, among others over the years. Needless to say, I would not do so if I thought there was any merit in what you say in this thread.

If you are reluctant to submit your evidence, then I suggest you should not have brought it up in the first place. It is entirely inappropriate and unprofessional.

Ok. Lets start with this one. http://www.wickedwildlifefund.com/abuse.html I would rather you donate money here. Let me just say this, your apathy can be overlooked, but your ignorance is offensive

The WWF believes that culling—another way of saying "killing"—elephants is acceptable, as is the trade in ivory, because the profits that it brings spur governments to keep elephants from going extinct. In 2000, U.S. News & World Report reported that WWF representatives traveled to Nairobi to ask the United Nations to lift the ban on the ivory trade in order to allow a "sustainable harvest of ivory for horns and hunting trophies."

If you think it is economically viable SA will sell you a (about to be culled) elephant at discount.

There is one "lovable" character available (a grumpy lone bull) with a preference of taking down a tree a day.

The only requirement is that you should be able to supply about 150kg and 200 l of water a day and a security fence to keep the Charpy inside your property and the ivory poachers outside.

You also need to promise to tug him in every night.

One advantage is that they don't bark or bite but the wagging of the tails (on both sides) and the trumpeting can be a nuisance.

And he don't respond to walkie!

Are you prepared for this deal?

I'm usually known for resisting the anti Chinese outpourings, but in this and the case of Tiger parts being sold, even I admit that they are the worst culprits.
I have the same distaste for the slaughter of wales by the Japanese.
However, I have nothing aginst eating dogs.

Oh, yes to answer the question, I'd guess make it out of hair (horse hair?) layed up in a bundle with animal glue from hide, sinew,bone etc compressed at 100 degrees C and a fair bit of pressure.

Del

You may be on to something. From what I read about rhino horns, it's all keratin, same stuff as hair and finger nails. Seems like hair could be pulverized into a powder, made into some kind of slurry and molded. That could take care of the decorative knife handles, etc.

As far as the purported medicinal benefit of these things, a good start would be for the governments of the worst offending countries to do controlled scientific studies and release the findings to the population. This might go a long way towards debunking the myths that keep the trade in these items going. Or, maybe not....

That may be the solution

Nobody would blink an eye if the donkey who was the favorite to win a race and lost were to be removed from society and the hair and other keratin containing organs are removed.

But will it rise Willie ?

Of course it will rise. If you tell them it will rise. It's the placebo effect, that's all that's at work right now.

Better yet, impregnate the donkey hair, hooves, etc. with Viagra, and they'll be lined up to get some. They'll forget all about rhino horns and never look back.

Hi kramarat

There seem to be a lot of gullible people in the east, west and in-between.

If we can convince them that plastic horn is better the rhino's may have a chance of beating extinction.

I had the opportunity to meet with one of the legendary big game hunters in 1965.

I did not liked the man then and in hindsight he was doing nothing more than poaching and taught the locals some dirty values. (He shot an elephant and just took the tusks and one foot - and a photo of him and his gun in front of the animal)

Like I said, I have no problem with people responsibly hunting for meat.

The "big game" sport hunters tend to be nothing but braggarts and cowards. They have a need to get their picture taken with a dead animal to prove to everyone that they are a man, when in fact it's quite the opposite.

As far as the ingestion of tusks and other animal organs to increase sexual prowess. That is simply a matter of education. A lot of these practices have been going on for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and may be tough to break.

As strange as it sounds though, I think drugs like Viagra, which has been proven safe, could stem the tide of this behavior. Look at it this way. Take a guy, that's been spending big dollars on ground up rhino tusk, falsely believing that it is increasing his libido, give him a Viagra pill and send him home to his wife, or whatever. I haven't tried Viagra, ( I'm sure the day will come), but I would be willing to bet money, that the next day, he's not going to be looking for rhino tusk. And he's going to be telling his friends about the incredible new substance he's discovered, that will make rhino tusk obsolete.

As long as there are people willing to buy these things, there will be others willing to kill and maim animals to harvest them. Kill the demand, remove the profit motive, and all of this will come to a screaching halt.

I was going to suggest the same as Kramarat. Save your toenail clippings: dye them dark with a mushroom or something equally tasteless, grind to a powder, and flood the market with "rhino horn powder" from your secret source.

If you produce enough of it, you might upset the demand for more atrocities...

Sell them Amanita phalloides as an aphrodisiac. It's really the right shape.