4 ms·

I just can't believe this! Even zoos in a country like France aren't safe anymore. 1Kg fetches $60K?!? Not only the ignorance part that drives me mad, but how

by yawz 10y ago

I just can't believe this! Even zoos in a country like France aren't safe anymore. 1Kg fetches $60K?!? Not only the ignorance part that drives me mad, but how come so many men can be extremely obsessed about sexual performance? I lose all hope in humanity in moments like these.

beaconstudios 10y ago
imagine how much powder 1kg of Rhino horn can make if ground up - I'm sure the per-dose price isn't very high. Plus, if you look at your email's spam box you'll likely find out just how lucrative black market sexual performance medicine can be.
- Shivetya 10y ago
  don't need black market, this is a multi billion industry just for Viagra and Cialis
  - beaconstudios 10y ago
    of course, but I was drawing comparison to the black-market trade of rhino horns.
jbob2000 10y ago
Wtf? Why even go to the trouble of killing a rhino for that price? Here, take some ground up chicken bone, you won't know the difference.
- lawless123 10y ago
  it's keratin, just chew your fingernails.
- gambiting 10y ago
  I imagine the people who are willing to pay so much money DO actually care about buying a real rhino horn. Ground up chicken bones might be identical, but a mobster will pay for a real horn, not a bag of white powder that might or might not be a real horn.
anigbrowl 10y ago
Not only the ignorance part that drives me mad, but how come so many men can be extremely obsessed about sexual performance? Reproduction is literally the basic reason for living. For many people, it's the only reason for living. If you're not philosophically or artistically inclined, what else is there? Eating and sleeping so you can work until you die isn't satisfying, especially when it's extremely obvious that people who are luckier or less scrupulous than others work much less and gain much more. Sex is a fairly democratic comfort in that respect; if you're into someone enough to have sex with them, it's similarly enjoyable whether you're rich or poor. If someone is heavily invested in sexual pleasure and loses access to it then getting that ability back is worth a high price. Now why people buy rhino horn when they could just get viagra or any number of illegal drugs like cocaine that would have similar effects, I have no idea. Probably nominally law-abiding people who have convinced themselves that laws and rules are what make us superior to animals, so that laws and rules about animal welfare can be ignored. Many people have such epistemological blind spots.
moftz 10y ago
Most of the demand is in art made from rhino horn. It fetches a high price and holds it's value well over time. Usually just the scrap from the sculpting process is turned into traditional medicine preparations. https://wildlifejustice.org/cn/overlooked-rhino-horn-demand-decorative-purposes-china/ https://wildlifejustice.org/cn/overlooked-rhino-horn-demand-...
soneil 10y ago
Not arguing with you, but the math does check out. The ‘normal’ dose of viagra is 100mg. 1kg into 100mg doses renders 10,000 doses. So $60k is only $6 a dose. At 25mg doses (no idea what the standard dose of rhino is, as you can imagine the fda doesn’t list much) you’re down to a buck fifty. If you dose it in similar quantities to real medications, $60k starts to look cheap.

by yawz 10y ago

beaconstudios 10y ago

imagine how much powder 1kg of Rhino horn can make if ground up - I'm sure the per-dose price isn't very high. Plus, if you look at your email's spam box you'll likely find out just how lucrative black market sexual performance medicine can be.

Shivetya 10y ago
don't need black market, this is a multi billion industry just for Viagra and Cialis
- beaconstudios 10y ago
  of course, but I was drawing comparison to the black-market trade of rhino horns.

jbob2000 10y ago

Wtf? Why even go to the trouble of killing a rhino for that price? Here, take some ground up chicken bone, you won't know the difference.

lawless123 10y ago
it's keratin, just chew your fingernails.
gambiting 10y ago
I imagine the people who are willing to pay so much money DO actually care about buying a real rhino horn. Ground up chicken bones might be identical, but a mobster will pay for a real horn, not a bag of white powder that might or might not be a real horn.

anigbrowl 10y ago

Not only the ignorance part that drives me mad, but how come so many men can be extremely obsessed about sexual performance? Reproduction is literally the basic reason for living. For many people, it's the only reason for living. If you're not philosophically or artistically inclined, what else is there? Eating and sleeping so you can work until you die isn't satisfying, especially when it's extremely obvious that people who are luckier or less scrupulous than others work much less and gain much more. Sex is a fairly democratic comfort in that respect; if you're into someone enough to have sex with them, it's similarly enjoyable whether you're rich or poor. If someone is heavily invested in sexual pleasure and loses access to it then getting that ability back is worth a high price. Now why people buy rhino horn when they could just get viagra or any number of illegal drugs like cocaine that would have similar effects, I have no idea. Probably nominally law-abiding people who have convinced themselves that laws and rules are what make us superior to animals, so that laws and rules about animal welfare can be ignored. Many people have such epistemological blind spots.

moftz 10y ago

Most of the demand is in art made from rhino horn. It fetches a high price and holds it's value well over time. Usually just the scrap from the sculpting process is turned into traditional medicine preparations. https://wildlifejustice.org/cn/overlooked-rhino-horn-demand-decorative-purposes-china/ https://wildlifejustice.org/cn/overlooked-rhino-horn-demand-...

soneil 10y ago

Not arguing with you, but the math does check out. The ‘normal’ dose of viagra is 100mg. 1kg into 100mg doses renders 10,000 doses. So $60k is only $6 a dose. At 25mg doses (no idea what the standard dose of rhino is, as you can imagine the fda doesn’t list much) you’re down to a buck fifty. If you dose it in similar quantities to real medications, $60k starts to look cheap.