R.I.P. Vince

This is Vince...
He was only 4 years old and now he's dead.

Why, you ask? Because some idiot somewhere in the world believes that rhino horn is going to cure their impotence, or liver problem, or cure their cancer, or name some other ailment. What a sad sad situation, the slaughter of an animal based entirely on some ridiculous unscientific myth. Since rhino horn is made up of keratin, you stand just a good of a chance of curing whatever ails you by chewing your fingernails or eating your own hair, since that's what keratin is, essentially.

Check out this graph, a bit outdated but still shocking when you consider the likelihood that the annual slaughter of rhinos has only increased over time.

And yes, you're reading that graph correctly, with an average of 1.6 rhinos killed daily, all to get a piece of horn. There have been international bans on selling and buying horn, as well as serious crackdowns on poaching and smuggling, but perhaps that is part of the problem and not a logical or viable solution. Consider the supply and demand factor, demand rationale as flawed as it is, and you'll realize that the price will skyrocket when the supply is low. In the 1990's, horn sold for approximately $250 - $500 per kg. Now, a kg can fetch as much as $100,000 or more. When your average rhino horn weighs in at 2.5 - 3 kg., and the average wage of someone in a country where rhinos live is possibly $100 per month, it isn't rocket science to determine that people will take huge risks to poach, with no afterthoughts of what will eventually happen to the rhino population.

So, what about supplying the demand without killing the rhino? Take existing rhinos and surgically remove the horn, which will grow back, and flood the market with the product. Make it easy and cheap to buy, thereby taking away the lucrative nature of poaching. Yes, people are silly, or downright stupid, because we know rhino horn isn't curing anything, but the education process may eventually start to work on those uneducated fools who still believe the myths and in the meantime we can protect what few rhinos are left. Seems logical to me, but I am no wildlife expert or world economist, so maybe that's flawed thinking.