However, in the wild, horns get scuffed and stained by soil and vegetation as rhinos wallow etc. You may think that a middleman would know that the horns have been poisoned or dyed, due to a change in appearance. Those involved in the rhino horn trade are hardened criminals who slaughter rhinos the poachers / traffickers / importers won’t bat an eyelid if they are harming someone living thousands of miles away who they have never met. The poacher is hardly to admit to the buyer that the horns may have been poisoned. Even if the poacher knows that the horn poisoned, he is likely to shoot the rhino anyway because he’ll probably still be able to sell the horns to a middleman for a large sum of money. Yet that didn’t stop poachers from targeting their rhinos. For example, Sabi Sands (a private game reserve adjacent to Kruger National Park) had poisoned its rhinos’ horns and widely advertised the fact. Taking a look at the first theory, it seems that poachers simply do not care whether the rhino they are killing has a poisoned horn or not. The idea relies on two assumptions: firstly, that the poachers will be deterred from killing rhinos with poisoned horns, and secondly, that consumers will be deterred from buying rhino horn for fear that they will be poisoned. Leaving aside the moral issues of poisoning people in a faraway country, there are several drawbacks to the idea. So firstly let’s examine the issue IF the poison did work as intended, and then we’ll take a look at the results of a new study into the effectiveness of the infusion method. In most instances, the reserves and parks have used signage to warn potential poachers that the rhinos’ horns have been treated. Since then, there have been several high-profile cases of private game reserves and state parks injecting poison and dye into their rhinos’ horns in an attempt to deter poachers. In addition to the horn poison, the project began infusing the horns with a bright colour dye, in an attempt to ward off potential poachers. According to the Rhino Rescue Project, although ectoparasiticides are not lethal to humans in small quantities, they remain toxic and symptoms of ingestion may include, but are not limited to, nausea, vomiting and convulsions (all dosage dependent). The poisoning process involves the drilling of holes directly into the rhino’s horns and then infusing them with highly toxic ectoparasiticides, which are also used to control ticks etc.
Ed’s initial idea developed into the Rhino Rescue Project, which saw the concept roll out across South Africa. However, it was known early on that the poison is not damaging to the rhino itself a rhino’s horn does not have any direct link to its bloodstream. At the time the method was experimental, and the exact effects of the poison unknown. It was hoped that this proactive solution would prevent rhinos being poached in the first place.
Ed Hern stated that: “The aim would be to kill, or make seriously ill anyone who consumes the horn”. The poisoning of rhino horns first appeared on the conservation scene in 2010, when Ed Hern, owner of the Rhino and Lion Reserve near Johannesburg, made a statement claiming that he was planning to inject the horns of the rhinos on his game reserve with poison in an effort to deter poachers. On the surface, the poisoning of rhinos horns seems like a fantastic idea – surely no one would want to consume rhino horn that is laced with poison and toxic chemicals?!īut if you dig a little deeper you see that the issue is not so simple… It was hailed as a ‘silver bullet’ to protect rhinos from the current poaching epidemic.
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