Rhino News

Chinese folk medicine credits powdered rhino horn with the ability to cure everything from impotence to cancer. This insane belief has brought the animal to the brink of extinction. Rhino horn is now worth an incredible £50,000 a kilo. That's more than diamonds, gold or cocaine. Running out of rhinos to kill, the criminals have begun targeting natural history museums across Europe. Thieves broke into the Ipswich Museum in Essex recently and stole a rhino horn and a black rhino skull (CLICK). They are also buying up artifacts made from rhino horn to export to China. At the recent Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Geneva, the UK has belatedly secured an agreement to curb the illegal trade in rhino horn. Britain will also spearhead a global campaign to disabuse Chinese dupes of the curative powers of rhino horn. Good luck with that! You might as well try to persuade religious fruitcakes that God doesn't exist. Belief is more powerful than logic. Click the title link for the BBC News item. The illustration above is Albrecht Dürer's innacurate woodcut Rhinoceros from 1515 (CLICK).