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Rhino horn stolen from museum


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A rhino horn has been stolen from the Musée Africain at l'Ile d'Aix, the fourth of similar recent thefts in France.

http://www.charentelibre.fr/2011/07/27/une-corne-de-rhinoceros-volee-a-l-ile-d-aix,1047568.php

 

And in South Africa armed soldiers are trying to defend the rhinos against poachers.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/27/well-equipped-rhino-poachers-elude-south-african-t/

"Since more than 140 troops were deployed in April, the number of rhinos killed in Kruger has dropped from 40 in March and 30 in April to 15 in May and just two in June.  Fifteen alleged poachers also have been killed this year, and nine suspects wounded in gunfights.

The hacked-off horns are destined to be smuggled to China and Vietnam, where traditional medicine practitioners grind them up for sale as alleged cures for everything from fevers to arthritis and cancer.

The horns have become so valuable that thieves this year started stealing rhino exhibits in European museums. The going rate is up to $44,000 a pound according to the London Metropolitan Police department."

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I thought exactly the same thing when the little blue Pfizer Risers hit the market.

I assumed the market in rhino horn, tiger paws and such would collapse (pardon the pun) but it seems that there is so much snake oil about that many people put their trust in mumbo-jumbo rather than proven facts

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"Robberies have been reported by museums in Portugal, France, Germany, Britain, the Czech Republic and as far north as Sweden. According to Scotland Yard, 20 thefts have taken place across Europe in just the past six months."

http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Rhino-head-stolen-from-museum-20110731

 

Rhino horn is not medicine   http://www.rhinoconservation.org/2011/03/29/busting-the-rhino-horn-medicine-myth-with-science/

 

Ingesting antique rhino horn could be deadly  http://www.rhinoconservation.org/2011/07/31/rhino-horn-stolen-from-uk-museum-could-contain-arsenic/

"Museum manager Peter Berridge explained that the exhibit was preserved with a “cocktail of chemicals”.  We don’t know for certain what was used, but it may well have included large amounts of arsenic. The alleged powers of rhino horn are completely mythical and this one is likely to do much more harm than good to anyone who tries taking it!"

 

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[quote user="Pommier"] You'd think that with China becoming more westernised that they would realise that there is no magic cure in a rhino horn[/quote]I cannot imagine why.  I know loads of apparently sane and westernised human beings who swear by all kinds of unproven, untested and unsubstantiated snake oil "cures".  People will believe all kinds of things for which there is little evidence, no matter where they come from.
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