Proponents tout rhino horn, shark fin (cartilage), and elephant tusk medicinal uses, as tonics, blood-purifiers, or aphrodisiacs. The myth underlying this illegal bone trade runs very deep. “Leading international wildlife crises involve illegal poaching of rhinos, elephants, and sharks for their body parts, to be sold on the Asian black market for exorbitant prices and used for medicinal purposes or art,” stated Cristina Eisenberg, chief scientist at Earthwatch Institute in Boston and author of The Carnivore Way: Coexisting with and Conserving North America’s Predators. Some wildlife, such as rhinos and wolves, among many others, faced extinction when trade in animal parts was legal, but they now face that possibility again with illegal trading and other extinction pressures. All this is done primarily at the hands of humans despite courageous efforts by conservation groups, governments, and individuals to stop the attacks. Not only rhinos are facing extinction but also African elephants certain species of lions, tigers, and wolves Grauer’s gorillas and even giraffes. The killing of rhinos is just the tip of the iceberg in the ever-increasing destruction of wildlife for dubious reasons. A kilogram, for instance, can sell for $60,000 (Kolata 2018). Why is the illegal supply and demand for rhino horns so pervasive? Rhino horn, after all, is mainly composed of keratin, the same substance in human hair and fingernails. Some horns are fashioned into ceremonial cups (Kolata 2018).

While most rhino horns are ground into powder and used as medicine to supposedly cure cancer, impotence, or, as an illegal wildlife trade monitor says, “you name it,” people in Asia have begun wearing beads or bangles made from rhino horns thought to cure ailments as well as for status symbols. Government border agents and officials are bribed as the horn makes its way to countries such as China and Vietnam, where the horn is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to treat various ailments, none of them proven scientifically to work. The poachers sell that horn to a middleman, who may be working for yet another smuggler, a criminal syndicate, or even terrorists. The screams of agony from rhino that have had their horns chopped off while still alive should reach into the hearts of all of us’” (Rademeyer 2017). It dies, leaving its own family behind because of human greed.“‘Rhino have a particularly plaintive cry,’ (conservationist Ian) Player 1 wrote (in The White Rhino Saga), ‘which once heard is never forgotten. The poachers quickly use the axe to sever its horn from its head, not caring that they are inflicting great pain as they hit a nerve and leave the rhino dehorned and its head a pulpy mess. While still alive, the rhino peers at the men as they approach. They soon bring it down with powerful volleys. Sporting AK-47 assault rifles and axes, the group of men stalk a black rhino through the African bush.

Mythological elephant predators