This article is about the issues of poaching rhinos throughout Africa , and drastic measures have been taken in an attempt to try and prevent poaching. The article starts out by discussing how a South African game reserve is trying to poison the horns of rhinos, to make them useless to poachers. Wild life managers  are injectiong poison into horns of live rhinos so that those who consume the horn will become “seriously ill”. According to the article the poison is a mixture of parasites and permanent pink dye. The poison isn’t fatal, but if someone does ingest the poisonous horn they will feel nauseated, stomachache and diarrhea. A private game reserve in South Africa has injected poison into more than 100 rhino horns over the past 18 months to try and discourage poaching. Conservationists hope that the poison will make the consumers of the horn think twice before they eat the horns. The managers of these game parks are using the media and posting signs on fences surrounding the protected areas. Airport scanners can also detect the dye that has been injected into the horns even if the horns have been grinded into powder. Rhino horns sell for their weight in gold and at times more in Chinese and Vietnamese markets, who use the horns in traditional medicines and as a condiment in some delicacies.

Last year 668 rhinos were killed by poachers and this year more than two hundred rhinos have been killed already, and conservationists estimate that close to 1,000 rhinos will be killed this year. Althought this attempt is made to lower poaching but it may not, instead “it probably has the effect of displacing poaching intensity to other areas, not stopping it altogether”. National parks support this idea but they say that it is almost impossible to use it on all the rhinos in the parks because a lack of resources.

I agree with this initiative, and can only hope that it works. There have been many attempts to try and stop poaching, but it still goes on, at an increasing level because many people are willing to pay so much for it.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/09/south-african-wildlife-conservationists-are-poisoning-rhino-horns-to-prevent-poaching/