Could Forging Rhino Horn Be Morally Wrong?

The price of Rhino horn recently exceeded the price of gold

Some newly rich Vietnamese believe rhino horn — used in traditional Chinese medicine — can now treat all kinds of illnesses. Last year in Vietnam, rhino horn sold for up to $1,400 an ounce, which is about the price of gold.

Now there’s an extinction issue...

So far this year, South Africa has lost more than 290 rhinos — an average of at least two a day. That puts the country on track to set yet another record after poachers killed 668 rhinos in 2012.

Also recently: Scientists create the first petri-dish, cell burger (apparently good news given that…)

According to the United Nations, raising animals for food (including land used for grazing and land used to grow feed crops) now uses a staggering 30 percent of the Earth's land mass. More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals, and according to scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, the equivalent of seven football fields of land is bulldozed worldwide every minute to create more room for farmed animals. www.peta.org...

In all seriousness: Maybe we can grow Rhino horn in the Petri-dish? Or at least use technology in that league to fool criminals? After all supply must be met (it just mustn't obviously be met with Rhino Horn)

I'm certainly happy investing into a technology can reduce -or even end the slaughter of farm animals, so putting less pressure for additional forest clearance. In fact I’m curious how to consciously do that? (Even if this technology does sound a bit Umbrella Corporation, Mono-Satan, or Monsanto ect, I’m personally optimistic it will at least (mostly) be proved safe after a few decades of testing on humans, and that despite this obvious cost it’s a no-brainer that its better than killing nature or ultimately facing hunger).

My Own Idea: Turning Dog-Poop into Gold…
Seems to me “Rhino” horn makes a great cash investment, but I’ve long had this “theory” that sun-dried dog poop (yep the type often seen on the pavement) would better improve the energy field around the type of human who believes in killing an endangered, intelligent animal just to improve their bedroom life.

Of course: Using real dog poop might smell a bit but there’s air-freshening products I’ve seen advertised on TV (god knows how they work, because probably only god's a good enough chemist!) and if it still smells I'd simply tell the customer the rhino had been deliberately left dead, a long time, before its horn was finally removed because this actually increases the horns effective healing potency!).

My question…
How does anyone find somebody wanting to pay large money for rhino horn? How does a dealer test it? And will I go to jail if I get caught, or will the judge have to cancel court proceedings because of their own laughing attacks? I read somewhere it's the same stuff as nail, so could cow horn do?

reply to post by Liberal1984


I'll tell ya how I feel about Rhino Poachers. We have many many thousands of guys coming out of the Service and a % haven't had their fill of the life it brought yet. Send them to Africa under contract to go hunting ......poachers.

$1,400 an ounce for Rhino horn? Okay... $1,400 a head for Poacher...Poached, of course.

We'll see which population becomes extinct first. My bet for good health would go with the Rhino in the end.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

$1,400 a head for Poacher...Poached, of course.

$1,400 a head? It should be $14,000 let's really get people interested. This could feed a whole village for a month or more. No poacher would be safe.

As far as growing it in a petri dish I say go for it. Nothing is being hurt so why not?

I dont think they would buy it if they knew..i believe they feel they are buying the power of the animal, not necessarily just the ingredients.
There are way too many animals wastefully killed for asian medicines that is for sure..im just not sure they would want something like that grow in a dish.

reply to post by Liberal1984


If they can grow a Rhino horn in the dish why not just grow the supposed ingredient that's supposedly in the Horn that is so Goddamned sought after....

reply to post by SLAYER69


Perhaps because a synthetic form of magic ju-ju beans is impossible. Same with fairy dust and super duper sex enhancers from Bengal Tiger penis. (really....I wish I were making that up for why that magnificent animal is hunted to extinction).

Read about what some do to African Albino children some day. It'll ruin your whole night. Barbarism toward animals seems par for the course among some human thinking....as does the superstitions that support it.

reply to post by Liberal1984


I find the material in this article to be somewhat confusing.

I had not heard before that the horn was used for medicine but rather as an aphrodisiac.

This ultimately was said to be a myth because the mindset was that the horn was phallus shaped, hard and erect and ingesting the powdered horn would cause the same state for those taking it.

So would it really be forging a medicine or synthetically manufacturing a Viagra look-a-like?

ShadowZumbrum So would it really be forging a medicine or synthetically manufacturing a Viagra look-a-like?

I guess in all seriousness: It would be manufacturing a rhino horn. Seems the main way they are sold as authentic, but that doesn’t mean they’d be difficult to fake –especially if you could simply handle a real one.
Now there must be tons of ways to do it… Perhaps: Ground cow horn, plus darker cow hoof, plus saw dust, and maybe powdered lead-iron for mass-weight? Personally I’d press it, cover it in clay, dry, and bake for a while. It might want some sugar to make it sticky, or other natural glue.

Wrabbit We have many many thousands of guys coming out of the Service and a % haven't had their fill of the life it brought yet. Send them to Africa under contract to go hunting ......poachers.

Probably safer than working as a mercenary for an Al-Qaeda type ideology, with e.g. Syria’s "rebels!" But the problem with bounty’s on “bad guys” is everything drugs prohibition has shown: Raise risk, raise price, raised price enough = somebody is always trying to step up, to meet demand.
Rhino seems valuable like opium is to an addict. Therefore it will literally go extinct UNLESS witch doctors can be duped.

This thread has form...
I remember being at school, and making fake cigarette’s out of fag but tobacco, plus dried brown lawn mower clippings (cut lovingly with scissors) and handing them out to seniors who’d always threaten to report me unless I gave them cigarettes. Needless to say they soon stopped asking! And (after a short while) simply couldn’t be bothered to follow me everywhere out of rage.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Well the one of the problems I see with a bounty on poachers is, I'll give an example:

Somewhere deep in an African Nature parc next to a pool
"Hey psssst"
"What??"
"Get your binoculars and look behind the bushes left of that rock"
"I see them"
"They are camouflaged and have sniper guns you see that?"
"Yes it seems they are tracking something they must be poachers....."

meanwhile at the bushes at the left of the rock

"Hey psssst"

"What??"

"Get your binoculars and look behind the bushes left of that pool"

"I see them"

"They are camouflaged and have sniper guns you see that?"

"Yes it seems they are tracking something they must be poachers....."

Besides the fact there will be poachers that were trying to catch a rhino with a bag of rice

Well, as it happens, there are already people hunting the poachers on a daily basis. They don't shoot them on sight, but they are very well armed to erase a poacher or two if one has the terminal stupidity to resist.

Military experts fight brutal poachers in 'Battleground: Rhino Wars'

South Africa Regroups in War on Rhino Horn Poachers

Animal Planet: Rhino Wars

I feel the same about the Rhino Poachers as I do the murderous scumbags on the Japanese whaling ships that go down to harvest whales for "research". If one of those ships goes to the bottom of the Southern ocean with all aboard? Awwwww......... I'll play my little so sowwy violin just for them. Same with the Rhino poachers.

My idea is actually just building on the armed efforts to hunt, locate and then either arrest or kill them right now. It can always use being expanded though. At least this case has the killing for a purpose beyond just standing on a new patch of ground to say "Mine!".

Its not morally wrong if you offer it as an alternative and people know it at purchase.

It is morally wrong if you sell it as Rhino horn without telling anyone because you are aiding that market and as a result more people may be more likely to get involved with it.