Horny Hangover Cure
Sorry, it’s not sexy at all, just sad.
Brent Stirton – Getty Images
“RHINO WARS”
“A wealthy Vietnamese woman sits and grinds Rhino horn for her personal consumption in a roadside café in Baoloc, Vietnam. The dealer who sold her the horn sits next to her. Rhino Horn is an illegal substance in Vietnam yet both the woman and her dealer have no fear of the police, grinding the horn in a café in full view of the street. The dealer states that he pays $1500 a month to the right people and they can carry on with impunity. The woman says that it has cured her Kidney Stones and now she takes it daily for her general health. Rhino horn is generally used as a fever reducing agent and for the removal of toxins across Vietnam, the biggest market for horn today. Rhino horn has even been held up as a cure for Cancer by a senior Minister in the Vietnamese government.”
Why is this happy little dude and his mom better off living in captivity?
Rhinos have been in trouble for a long time, but their slaughter for their horns is on the rise. They’ve long been in demand for ornamental and “medicinal” purposes in Asia and the Middle East but since 2007, despite increased efforts to save the remaining rhinos in the wild, their death toll has increased. In 2011, the death toll added up to one rhino being killed every 20 hours. The biggest current market for rhino horn is the affluent Vietnamese who is using the powdered horn as a hangover remedy. What happened to a nice hot bowl of pho doing the trick?
There’s not much response from the Vietnamese government to try to curb the collecting of horns, and distributors often have organized crime connections. The horns find their way into hospitals as well as private homes.
Big game hunting is big industry in many parts of Africa developing their tourism, with customers flying in from all over the world to take out gigantic herbivores that don’t run very fast or pose any threat to humans. Vietnamese rhino horn distributors sign up for fake hunting trips, sometimes hiring Thai sex workers to go on the trips so they don’t have to get their loafers dusty on safari. The distributors succeed with the help of corrupt wildlife reserve workers, customs officials, and even shady wildlife veterinarians.
The rhinos are going fast. The black rhino has already been declared extinct, with other species of rhino following fast. Vietnamese ballers need to chill out on the horn and just take a couple of ibuprofen after an all-nighter, or we’ll be all out of rhinos. This creep in the US got busted, but he’s just one of thousands around the world who don’t really mind if they wipe out a species or two. Shark fins, rhino horns… when we’re all out of sharks and rhinos, what’s next?
Brent Stirton – Getty Images
“A four man anti-poaching team permanently guards a Northern White Rhino on Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, 13 July 2011. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is an important “not-for-profit” wildlife conservancy in the Laikipia District of Kenya and the largest sanctuary for black rhinos in East Africa. It is also the home of 4 of the world’s remaining 8 Northern White Rhino, the worlds most endangered animal. There has been an increase in poaching incidents on Ol Pejeta recently, in line with a massive worldwide increase in rhino poaching linked to the rise in the Asian middle class. Anti-poaching teams provide close protection to the rhino, with 24 hour observation over all rhino on Ol Pejeta and 24 hour armed guard protection over the 4 Northern White Rhino who are kept in their own Boma area. The team have developed extraordinary relationships with these Rhino, leaning on them, scratching them and displaying tremendous affection towards these most endangered of animals. Each of the men in these teams feels a genuine vocation towards the protection of these animals, something the rhino seem to sense, and this emerges on a daily basis as the men walk with the rhino through their day.”