Save The Rhino Trust

Rhinoceros horn is comprised of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails. Yet since the eighth century, having exhausted its own supplies, China became a major importer of rhino horn. Horn is mainly used in Chinese traditional medicine particularly for curing fevers. Elsewhere in the Far East rhino horn is a main component in herbal medicines for curing children’s fits, all types of eye diseases, fever and diseases of the heart, epilepsy both acute and chronic.

Rhino horn also forms an ingredient in pills sold to patients in traditional clinics for the purpose of curing high blood pressure, paralysis and various types of pain.

Notwithstanding the fact that China joined CITES in 1981, rhino horn has continued to be smuggled into the country, principally from North Yemen, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan with lesser quantities smuggled in from Singapore and Thailand.

South Korea and Japan are also consumers of rhino horn for traditional medicines.

In Yemen rhino horn is sought after for the manufacture of jimbaya hilts or handles.

Currently Vietnam has emerged as a major source of rhino horn for China.

The fact that rhino horn is erroneously thought to have aphrodisiac qualities has, in the past, aggravated the illegal demand, which in turn has fuelled the poaching threat.

Assuming horn stocks in the Far East and Yemen have diminished through utilization, this could be the cause of the current upsurge of rhino poaching in Southern Africa, particularly Zimbabwe and South Africa.

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