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People who are crazy enough to consume rhino horn for any purpose will discard this attempt as "fake rhino horn".
by 31reasons 11y ago
People who are crazy enough to consume rhino horn for any purpose will discard this attempt as "fake rhino horn".
- george88b 11y agoNot if it is indistinguishable from the real thing and they have no idea as to its origins.
- wuschel 11y agoI agree. The trick will to i) undercut rhino horn prices and ii) make it undistinguishable from the original. Quite a challenge, but I like the idea.
- rdmcfee 11y agoMaybe it's more a lack of access to modern scientific knowledge than 'craziness'.
- 31reasons 11y agoSince when access to scientific knowledge stopped people from believing pseudo-science ?
- berberous 11y agoAre the main customers for items like this the poor and uneducated, or the wealthier segments of Asian society with plenty of access to modern scientific knowledge? Also, I wouldn't be surprised if it's analogous to the Dr. Oz / anti-vaccine set in the U.S. Those people have access to all the knowledge they could want, but you still couldn't shake their misguided beliefs out of them.
- 31reasons 11y agoRhino horns = illegal and dangerous = very expensive = rich buyers.
- DanBC 11y agohttp://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/16/rhino-horn-demand-in-vietnam-drops-by-more-than-33-in-one-year http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/16/rhino-hor... This article appears to support you. Letting people know that rhino horn is not medicine reduced the numbers of people wanting to buy rhino horn.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- DanBC 11y agohttp://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/16/rhino-horn-demand-in-vietnam-drops-by-more-than-33-in-one-year http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/16/rhino-hor... This article appears to support you. Letting people know that rhino horn is not medicine reduced the numbers of people wanting to buy rhino horn.
- TheGrassyKnoll 11y agoI was hoping the introduction of Viagra etc. would stop this nonsense.
- manigandham 11y agoWould people crazy enough to consume rhino horn even know real vs "fake" horn?
- dluan 11y agoTheir idea is that they'll dump their product into places where rhino horns shows up (e.g. in hair conditioner in SE Asia), which would then bring prices down for the real thing. Rhino horn is mainly keratin with extra hormones, which can be readily recreated. It's really fascinating, and similar to the arms race in detecting purity levels in drugs. Also, mobs and stuff too make it pretty exciting and non-typical 'startup' work.
- cgh 11y agoIt more or less worked with bear gall bladders. Where I live, black bear poaching for gall bladder export to China was a major issue. Now the Chinese breed black bears on farms for this purpose (the farm conditions are another matter - predictably horrible). Black bears are still poached but not at the same rates. To the Chinese, consuming these things (rhino horns, bear gall bladders) isn't crazy. It's more or less mainstream, though of course it has zero scientific credibility beyond the placebo effect.
- princeb 11y agobear bile is used to treat primary biliary cirrhosis. it can be synthesized, but if you don't have the equipment, bears will do.
- gohrt 11y agohard to call that a victory
- josinalvo 11y agoVictory be damned! =P Keeping the species alive is better than not. Now, we try to figure out humane farming, if we want to