Why the Demand for Rhino Horn?

Why the Demand for Rhino Horn?

– Taz Watson

One of the biggest challenges with rhino horn is that there are multiple end-users. We are up against a complex and extremely difficult market because it is expansive and constantly changing.  Each poaching crisis has had different end-users, a different market and different uses. It changes all the time. Just when you think you have identified the market, it morphs.

The beginning of this current crisis saw China as the major player from the demand side. However, the demand for rhino horn in Vietnam has increased at an alarming rate. It is used in traditional medicine, for ceremonial purposes, it is a symbol of status and it is believed to be a cancer cure. The belief in the latter is so strong, that people walk around hospitals in Vietnam and persuade the families of terminally ill patients to buy rhino horn as a cure for cancer. The belief is that if the entire horn is purchased and kept in the owner’s home, then the family will remain free from cancer for life. Many of these hospitals are so run-down and poor that chemotherapy is not an option.  Therefore, to many, rhino horn is seen as the only option.

The other major challenge in this war is horn stockpiling by criminal syndicates. They are taking every rhino horn that they can get their hands on and holding them in large safes. As the rhino population decreases, the value of the horns increases. These syndicates are so organized that any horn flooded into the market, will be taken and stored until the profit potential increases – most likely when our rhinos are extinct.

In Vietnam, a rhino horn has huge status value. If you are a business executive and you have a large horn with a broad base on your desk, it demonstrates a very high status. The bigger the horn and the wider the base, the greater the status symbol it is. ‘Face value’ or ‘Ferrari-factor’ is also a current concern Vietnam. This is why wealthy individuals use rhino horn as a hangover cure. It is becoming common courtesy in certain circles to bring out a rhino horn and provide guests with scrapings of it to prevent their hangovers the following day. There is also the rarity value of the horn. Just like with art prints, the smaller the number of prints that are available, the more valuable your print is. As the number of rhinos decreases, the more valuable the horn becomes. It is a case of simple economics.

Unlike Chinese traditional medicine that is deeply engrained, all of the Vietnamese uses are current ones and are not entrenched in any traditions. The media has wrongly painted the picture that the horns are used in China as an aphrodisiac. Jokes in the media referring to rhino poaching as a ‘horny issue’ have only perpetuated this misconception. Rhino horn was used as an aphrodisiac in China, but only in a few cases. However, due to the media’s persistent insistence that this was what it was used for, people in Vietnam are now using it as an aphrodisiac. The media therefore created this demand where one didn’t previously exist.

Another recent, and somewhat frightening, demand is coming from within South Africa where rhino parts are being used in traditional medicine known as muti. The rhino has never before been desirable to use in local medicines. In fact, to many African tribes, the rhino is seen as a royal animal and therefore not one that should ever be harmed. Unfortunately, due to the recent rise in rhino poaching and the increased availability of rhino parts, there is a growing market for rhino mutis. Beyond the horns, poachers are now removing the ears, feet, genitals and tails of rhinos for use in these poisons.

Tragically, the most recent belief is that rhino horn taken form a live animal has increased potency and is therefore of far greater value. For this reason, many rhinos have their horns hacked off with axes and pangas while they are still alive. What’s worse is that poachers are now hacking deeper into the rhinos face, so much so that over half their faces are cut away. The root of the rhino horn sits out of the base of the skull, with the horn on top of this. Because the root is a living part of the animal, there is a serum that is secreted from underneath it. This serum, referred to as horn pulp, has incredibly high value. Poachers know that more of this serum is secreted when the horn is removed while the animal is still alive, so in order to increase the potential profit opportunities, the rhinos are intentionally kept alive while the poachers brutally remove their horns.  Ian Player, who is credited for having saved white rhino from extinction in the 1960’s explains that “rhino have a particularly plaintive cry, which once hear is never forgotten. The screams of agony from rhino that have had their horns chopped off while still alive should reach out into the hearts of all of us,” (Killing for Profit 2012: ix).