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Has anyone else seen an article about dying Rhino horns pink with poison that seems to have recently gone viral on Facebook? The article is from 2013 and features a photoshopped image of a rhino with a pink horn. The photoshopped image is even credited to someone!
The article and photo can be seen here:
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/04/10/pink-poison-rhino-horn-stop-ivory-trade
Judging by the Facebook comments most don't even seem to have notice the caption under the photo does say it's not a photo of one of the treated rhinos and that the image had been photoshopped.
As the article is a few years old I wondered how well the dying has gone in the 2 years since. A few minutes on google I soon found this article by Save The Rhino. Sadly it looks like the dye doesn't spread within the horn making it ineffective.
The Save The Rhino article can seen here:
https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poisoning_rhino_hornsf
The full paper 'Chemical horn infusions: a poaching deterrent or an unnecessary deception?' can be found here:
http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=pdfviewer&id=1411816179&folder=141
Whilst Facebook is great to get things out to a bigger audience I do wonder how effective it is. This article was two years old and due to the photo of the rhino with the 'cute' pink horn it's gone viral. I actually think some people think there are rhinos with pink horns like in the photo walking around Africa. Actual dyed horns don't look anything like it.
Perhaps it may increase donations to rhino conservation but it would be sad if it did divert much needed funds to this method that seems to have been proved to be ineffective, costly and potentially putting rhinos through risky anaesthetic for no gain.
The article and photo can be seen here:
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/04/10/pink-poison-rhino-horn-stop-ivory-trade
Judging by the Facebook comments most don't even seem to have notice the caption under the photo does say it's not a photo of one of the treated rhinos and that the image had been photoshopped.
As the article is a few years old I wondered how well the dying has gone in the 2 years since. A few minutes on google I soon found this article by Save The Rhino. Sadly it looks like the dye doesn't spread within the horn making it ineffective.
The Save The Rhino article can seen here:
https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/poisoning_rhino_hornsf
The full paper 'Chemical horn infusions: a poaching deterrent or an unnecessary deception?' can be found here:
http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=pdfviewer&id=1411816179&folder=141
Whilst Facebook is great to get things out to a bigger audience I do wonder how effective it is. This article was two years old and due to the photo of the rhino with the 'cute' pink horn it's gone viral. I actually think some people think there are rhinos with pink horns like in the photo walking around Africa. Actual dyed horns don't look anything like it.
Perhaps it may increase donations to rhino conservation but it would be sad if it did divert much needed funds to this method that seems to have been proved to be ineffective, costly and potentially putting rhinos through risky anaesthetic for no gain.
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