South Africa Considers Removing Horns From Its Rhinos to Reduce Poaching

South Africa, home to 93 percent of the continent’s rhinoceros population, is studying whether to dehorn the animals to make them less attractive to poachers.

Poachers have killed at least 279 rhinos this year, adding to the record 333 that died last year, government data show. Most rhino horns make their way to east Asia, where they are in demand for their supposed aphrodisiac properties as well as other medicinal uses. They are also used as dagger handles in Yemen and Oman.

“We will do everything in our power to deal with the scourge of rhino poaching,” Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa told reporters in the capital, Pretoria, today. A study on whether to go ahead with the plan has been started and will be concluded within three months, she said.

The government is also considering placing a moratorium on rhino hunting to halt abuse of the permit system and studying whether legalizing trade in rhino horn in South Africa would curb poaching, Molewa said.

South Africa has a population of about 19,400 white rhinos and 1,678 black rhinos, according to the parks department. Of those, 12,000 white rhinos live in the Kruger National Park, a reserve in the northeast of the country that borders on Mozambique.
Poaching Declines

In November 2009, the Cabinet decided to deploy soldiers to patrol the borders, a measure that has helped reduce poaching in South Africa’s largest conservation area. Kruger has also hired 57 rangers this year.

“Over the last two weeks we have lost about four rhinos, but in totality the number of incidents have decreased quite tremendously” in Kruger Park, David Mabunda, chief executive officer of South African National Parks, told reporters. “That has resulted in the displacement of poaching activities to other areas” such as private reserves and game farms.

White rhinos may take their name from a mispronunciation of the Dutch word for wide, as a description of their lip. They weigh as much as 2.7 metric tons (5,952 pounds) while black rhinos weigh up to 1.35 tons. There are also three Asian species -- Javan, Indian and Sumatran.

In 2009, the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species estimated that rhino poaching globally was at a 15-year high. Rhino poaching is also a problem in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, India and Nepal.

South African police have arrested 155 people in connection with rhino poaching this year, adding to the 165 detained in 2010, Molewa said.

What have we become when the last option to save this species is to remove their horns?
Don't know if this is possible but I'd like to see if scientists can somehow soak those horns in some vile, plague-producing solution that's safe to the rhino but would cause lesions, sterility and testicle pain to anyone who dared sniffed a powdered rhino horn.
In other words send a message to our Asian brothers that rhino soup no good for libido.