Cutting Rhino horns to save them?

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I was watching a documentary the other day that went into this topic. They interveiwed a man that is working to save rhinos, but one of the tactics is they cut the rhinos horns every couple years. It is by no means a perfect situation...however the horns can be cut off without killing/harming the rhino, so long as someone with care does it and doesn't cut it too close to the base. Then said horns can be sold for the demand, but without having an entire species slaughtered for them. It is sad because a rhino is so much more majestic with its horns...but at the same time I certainly don't want to see them disappear either and it would seem cutting the horn does a good job deterring poachers killing them...because that is what they kill them for.

On another side I saw some good argument for hunting some animals, because it can help feed a whole village....but on the otherside allowing people to hunt endangered species like Lions, just for 'the thrill' doesn't really help their habitat not to mention much of the time people are hunting captive lions and/or other lions that are literally released just for the purpose of being shot down by some ass with a huge ego. I am not entirely opposed to hunting but the way I see it, if your not doing it as a means to get food or potentially necessary resources then its really just slaughter....Like I would hate to kill an animal, but if I was hungry and in a situation I could kill and harvest some meat I probably would....but would I want to go chase down an animal just for its head? probably not.

It is sad indeed, especially given how absolutely fascinating rhinos are...

In the real world though, there's a demand for these horns, and while it is a sub optimal solution, it's alot better than the rhinos being completely killed off.

Also though they have found that Lions will roar to sort of determine their territory, and effectively other lions stay out of the vicinity if they hear a powerful lion roar of a lion already dominating the area. Well in africa there is a problem of people killing lions to save livestock....it is possible they could create recordings of the lions roar, and use that to deter lions coming onto farms and killing said livestock. Like this kind of innovation could save the species...because if they could trick wild lions into thinking the territories already have a dominant lion then they'll be less likely to go after peoples livestock.

Yep.

It's a sick sad world we live in.

We have to disfigure rhinos in order to save them.

And why is there a demand for rhino horns?

It doesn't justify killing off the elephants to get their tusks, but at least ivory tusks can be carved into great works of art. So at least they have a use.

As I understand it you cant carve rhino horns into anything, neither art nor billiard balls, nor piano keys, like you can ivory. Rhino horns are not teeth. They are not made of ivory, but out karitin. The same stuff that horses hooves are made of, and the same stuff that your hair and finder nails are made of.

Yet their horns are literally worth more than their weight in gold.

The reason is because of the belief that ground up rhino horns can be used magic medicine, like an aphrodisiac. The dumbest reason that you can imagine. The demand is based on superstition.

Just now I found an article in Atlantic Monthly from 2013 about "Why is there a demand for rhino horns?" (cant figure out how to link to it, but you can find it).

According that article China was actually pretty successful in recent years in eliminating rhino horn powder from its folk medicine shops. But the problem is that there is now a spike in black market demand because of a rumor that swept Vietnam that rhino horn powder cures cancer (a belief that doesn't even come from Chinese traditional medicine, just a new thing). Rich Vietnamese will pay 2000 dollars a bottle for the medical treatment that has no chemical difference from chewing on your own finger nails.

There has also been an effort to tranquilize elephants in order to cut off their tusks, so poachers won't deplete their population by killing them for the sake of selling the ivory.

Pasted from Wikipedia:

Overall, we need to understand that these poachers are not always monsters. Some poachers kill rhinos and chop off their horns because they need the money.

This is happening because Africa has been ruined by hyper-capitalism.