Last 15 rhinos in Mozambique park betrayed by rangers, killed by poachers

[Poppincaps]

Darwinism at its finest

It's pretty damn obvious that we are the dominant species on the planet. Still doesn't mean we should kill off whole species just because their horns are pretty. The only real excuse for killing those animals would be if we needed food for our survival.

[Deleted]

When will the people sponsoring this market understand that these animals have NOTHING of medicinal value...? WHY do species die because they THINK there's something magical about their body parts??

Its mostly because of braggin rights I think.

Look! I have so much money! I can afford a body part of an endangered species!

[ParanoiD84]

Also the fact that they are killed for some bullshit imaginary medicin. like i said kill all poachers on sight there is plenty off people around cant say the same for those animals

[poser765]

Its mostly because of braggin rights I think.

Look! I have so much money! I can afford a body part of an endangered species!

No I think in some Asian cultures really DO believe in the medicinal value of this stuff. Now stuff like decorative ivory and scrimshaw? That is very much a status piece.

[Friendlyimmolation]

Chop off "horns" of the rangers and then feed them the rhino horns saying it will cure them. What happened to the other rangers that were killing any poacher they saw and getting paid well to do it?

[Poppincaps]

From the article:



good.

The problem with this is that it isn't going to punish the poachers or the "doctors" who use the horns in their medicine. It's going to punish the patients which haven't done anything wrong.

[IIamaKing]

I'm not big on killing people...how about instead it just makes them infertile?

Shit, god no, Im sure one of the horns powers is to increase fertility. You would just increase demand. Fuck these selfish pieces of shit robbing EVERYONE on the planet of beautiful creatures to sate their ignorance. FUCK THEM!

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It's pretty damn obvious that we are the dominant species on the planet. Still doesn't mean we should kill off whole species just because their horns are pretty. The only real excuse for killing those animals would be if we needed food for our survival.

Or their constant trampling of camps/crops endangers your chances of survival. There are lots legitimate reasons to kill animals. Doing for 1/1000 of its carcase is not one of them.

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The problem with this is that it isn't going to punish the poachers or the "doctors" who use the horns in their medicine. It's going to punish the patients which haven't done anything wrong.

Yeh they have, they are using an illegal substance to "cure" themselves. I doubt doctors are prescribing rhino horns to patients without their knowledge or consent.

[Aleksej89]

When you cause the last of something to go extinct, then you yourself should be made extinct.

Horribly painfully extinct.

[Dhrizzle]

Because
#1 Cloning isn't full-proof yet.
#2 Cloning doesn't result in a viable population, you end up with copies of 1 rhino.
#3 The cloning process will eventually result in genetic fading, and you'll have an unviable clone.

Also, we're not at the stage where we can grow clones in vitro yet, so we'd still need a mother to carry the baby to term in which case there's no point in it being a clone. There is the Frozen Ark Project which aims to preserve the DNA of endangered species in the hopes some technology becomes available, I'm assuming they're keeping enough samples to create viable breeding populations.

I like to dream that we as humanity once recreate all the species we drove to extinction, from mammoths to dodo's, I hope I will live to see that day.

I was going to query whether we were responsible for mammoths, but when I checked the Frozen Ark facebook page they had a very recent story that says, currently, that's definitely what the evidence suggests. Still, in the case of pre-agriculture humans taking out the mammoths I'd say that was more a case of necessary badassery than today's ignorant cruelty.

[Karagar]

The problem with this is that it isn't going to punish the poachers or the "doctors" who use the horns in their medicine. It's going to punish the patients which haven't done anything wrong.

No. Those that seek this kind of "medicine" are JUST as culpable as anyone else involved in the chain; since its usually ultra-wealthy asian businessmen seeking extra "vigor"... >.>;;;

[MerinPally]

why dont we just clone the rhinos?

Because it's a nightmare. Due to DNA methylation you get a genetically fucked bit of slop, success rate is tiny. And even the successful ones seem to die at the drop of a hat.

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The problem with this is that it isn't going to punish the poachers or the "doctors" who use the horns in their medicine. It's going to punish the patients which haven't done anything wrong.

It's not punishing them because this medicine doesn't work, same effect with or without - they're just being placebo'd and you can't really punish them as many will just be ignorant to the facts. They should absolutely target self proclaimed doctors who push this shit.

[Deleted]

The problem with this is that it isn't going to punish the poachers or the "doctors" who use the horns in their medicine. It's going to punish the patients which haven't done anything wrong.

Nothing wrong? They support poaching by buying from those witch doctors, they deserve raging diarhea, maybe they'll even lynch the witch doctors, one can only hope...

I was going to query whether we were responsible for mammoths, but when I checked the Frozen Ark facebook page they had a very recent story that says, currently, that's definitely what the evidence suggests. Still, in the case of pre-agriculture humans taking out the mammoths I'd say that was more a case of necessary badassery than today's ignorant cruelty.

The mammoths where probably out of necessity but that doesn't take away the fact that we killed most of them.

[Deleted]

The extinction of a whole species, especially if it's because of greed, or in this case even basically because one party believes something that is scientifically incorrect, is tragic, and sad, and I think the world loses something when that happens. But as it goes for the individual rhinos, those 15 rhinos that just died, their deaths don't mean more to me than the deaths of 15 cows or chickens. I mean we kill animals everyday, for our own purposes. The only crime these poachers have commited is that they've (maybe) made sure that a species went extinct. But even there we have to keep in mind that it wasn't just because of them. They just killed 15 of them. Is it really fair to say that these poachers should die for that, for killing 15 animals? I think that's largely exaggerated. I don't applaud what they did, and I think that everyone involved should be punished and I think we definitely should protect endangered species. But I have a hard time hating them for killing a couple of animals for monetary gain.

[Poppincaps]

To those of you who replied to me, are you fully aware of all of the ingredients in the medicine that your doctors prescribe you (being a doctor doesn't count)? It's a different culture ultimately. To us they are witch doctors and it would be preposterous to go to one for medical assistance. To them they may actually be respected individuals in their community so it would be a no brainer to get medicine from one of them.

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Because it's a nightmare. Due to DNA methylation you get a genetically fucked bit of slop, success rate is tiny. And even the successful ones seem to die at the drop of a hat.

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It's not punishing them because this medicine doesn't work, same effect with or without - they're just being placebo'd and you can't really punish them as many will just be ignorant to the facts. They should absolutely target self proclaimed doctors who push this shit.

It's a placebo that has been laced with harmful substances. That is punishing the patients. Not the doctors or the poachers.

[Forgettable]

Something something religion, something something morals, something something don't play god.

We certainly have the technology to clone, as experienced with dolly the sheep; But is it currently feasible or not, as a rhino is far more complicated to clone than a sheep.

Mr. Bear, I'm awfully tired of you coming into every thread and bashing religion as a part of your contribution to the thread. It's just foolishness. It's another stereotype like "All blondes are dumb." Yes, there are stupid regressive people who fanatically follow religions and think science is of the devil, sinning, blah blah, etc. Most of us are everyday sensible people and I would much appreciate it if you would stop classing us all together. /endrant

OT: This is a tragedy and I don't know if we can stop it, but we should certainly try. Stopping or prosecuting after the fact those who are physically doing the acts is great and all, but eventually we need to go to the source; the demand for the ivory. Crack down on prosecuting/fining/imprisoning those who are buying the ivory.

[poser765]

The extinction of a whole species, especially if it's because of greed, or in this case even basically because one party believes something that is scientifically incorrect, is tragic, and sad, and I think the world loses something when that happens. But as it goes for the individual rhinos, those 15 rhinos that just died, their deaths don't mean more to me than the deaths of 15 cows or chickens. I mean we kill animals everyday, for our own purposes. The only crime these poachers have commited is that they've (maybe) made sure that a species went extinct. But even there we have to keep in mind that it wasn't just because of them. They just killed 15 of them. Is it really fair to say that these poachers should die for that, for killing 15 animals? I think that's largely exaggerated. I don't applaud what they did, and I think that everyone involved should be punished and I think we definitely should protect endangered species. But I have a hard time hating them for killing a couple of animals for monetary gain.

I am not a proponent of the death penalty at all, but I am not above some harsh punishment...With that said only the severest crimes against humanity and nature should receive the harshest punishments.

I can't think of a better example of a crime against nature than by actively bringing about the extinction of a species. 15 rhinos, 15 cows...the difference is the cow is in very little danger of ceasing to exist. The same can't be said for a rhino. Shit, it practically barely holding on to life as it as a species circles the drain.

[araine]

This is what happens when greed becomes the norm uncontrolled capitalism at its worst on display

[Deleted]

Trial and life imprisonment. We no longer have this animal because of their greed.

Oh, no, they weren't last 15 rhinos in the world. It's sad, but there's still thousands of them.

[Sindile]

I say cut off the rangers' nose and pull out their toe and finger nails...see how they like being farmed for their parts. Then they have my permission to die.

[Deleted]

I am not a proponent of the death penalty at all, but I am not above some harsh punishment...With that said only the severest crimes against humanity and nature should receive the harshest punishments.

I can't think of a better example of a crime against nature than by actively bringing about the extinction of a species. 15 rhinos, 15 cows...the difference is the cow is in very little danger of ceasing to exist. The same can't be said for a rhino. Shit, it practically barely holding on to life as it as a species circles the drain.

I absolutely understand, but can we blame the extinction of a species wholly on the person who kills the last one?