Poaching Rhinos, Farming Rhinos, or Letting Rhinos Live Free?

The poaching going on in Africa of rhinos  in order to get their horns for money is something that must be stopped, but as discussed in the NPR episode, it is not a matter of if poaching should be stopped, it is instead a question of what is the best way to stop it. The morality of this topic was briefly touched on in this post, making me wonder – Do rhinos matter? Are they important to the wildlife? What do rhinos do for us other then their horns? In answer to this I realized we could as the same question about humans – Do we matter? Do we contribute to wildlife? What are we valuable for? And then it struck me. We are not valuable, we offer no contributions, in fact if anything, we take away; therefore, it is our job that as humans to stop affecting the system of wildlife and take it into our power to if not give to nature, to stop taking away.

As I looked deeper into this dilemma, I realize that although, we want to believe that everyone can be convinced that the morality of killing rhinos is more important then money, this is not the case. As proven hundreds of times in past organizations, movements take decades to catch on, and rhinos do not have decades, for if the poaching is not stopped they will go extinct in three years.

There were two different ideas brought up by two parties in this episode, one ops to completely get rid of the animal horns by surgically, and painlessly, removing the horns and then setting the rhinos free again, and the other party ops to farm the Rhinos and also surgically remove the horns ever year, but instead selling them. The idea to farm these animals would mean that almost all rhinos would become like farming chickens or farming cows in the US, resulting in bad living conditions for the Rhinos, and the value of the animal shifting from their contributions to the wildlife to the value of their horns.  If we continue to farm animals and take them away from their natural living conditions, then they will also be dependent on humans forever. This solution may seem like a money maker and a way to keep the animals alive, but is it really fair to the animal to keep them locked up for their life for money, especially when there is another solution? I say no.

Moving on to the second idea that we should just stop the sale of rhino horns all together by basically confiscating them, but letting the rhinos to continue to live in their natural habitat. As stated in the NPR piece their is no real evidence that the horns heal or cure any disease or illness; therefore, if it actually isn’t doing anything valuable and it’s not morally right to use them, then why should the ban on the sale of rhino horns be lifted? By removing the horns, like in the other argument, the animal will not be hurt, but in this case the animal will still be allowed to live free, having no value to poachers as their horns will have been removed. By using this method the declining rhino population will plato and then hopefully begin to grow again at its own pace, saving this animal from extinction and also letting them live a life were they belong.