The End Of Rhinoceros

Rhinos have been slaughtered to near extinction in Africa and India to fuel the insatiable demand for rhino horn products in China. Chinese people are especially interested in their horns, because they use it mostly as a medicinal purpose. In their society this is considered culturally acceptable behavior and they do not challenge themselves by questioning if they are doing wrong or not. But because this healing power is based on myths about the alleged medicinal properties, the killing has to become unacceptable in order to ensure the rhinoceros survive. The leaders of China must act to prevent the extinction of the rhinoceros by educating their people about the myths of traditional medicine, and the leaders of Africa and India must educate their people about the right use of high technology, and should give access to education for all in order to stop the illegal activities.

Chinese people have little knowledge of what is really hidden behind their traditions. They do not realize the damages they cause to the wildlife by doing just like their ancestors. They are putting at risk the rhinoceros species that are about to disappear forever. To avoid any further killing of animals for cultural purpose, Chinese people should become aware of the situation and collaborate for the surviving of the 2,000 rhinoceros left in the wild. Furthermore, Chinese families can replace their traditional medicine by substitutes to make this practice culturally acceptable. To make this happen Chinese people have to be educated about to understand the importance of preserving rhinoceros.

One factor causing the death of rhinoceros is related to cultural beliefs of Chinese people that are myths of traditional medicine. Indeed, the demand for horns has increased substantially in the recent years because local people use it as a traditional medicine. For example, Chinese families treat fever, hangovers, rheumatism and cancer by drinking the rhino horn powder. The reason they believe rhino horn has medicinal properties is because their ancestor passed down their traditions. Since then this has become an acceptable behavior and people do not longer wonder whether this is causing the extinction of these animals or not, they just keep doing as they were told to do. They believe that the more rhino horn powder they drink, the healthier they will be. In the article of the writer and journalist Michael Pollan’s New York Times Magazine, “Unhappy Meals”, he says that Americans, because of their lack of knowledge about food, preferred to follow advice from the industrial food and rely on labels claiming that “low-fat” foods were good for their health (173). In the end, Americans ended up having physical problems and diseases such as obesity, heart attacks, diabetes, and such (Pollan 169). This relates to the same reason why Chinese people follow advice from other people without challenging the accepted cultural norm. It is because they simply ignore the truth and have no clue if the rhino horn powder can cause them harm or not. What they do not know is that rhino horns are made of protein keratin, the same as our fingernails or hair, and that the quantity of this protein cannot cure or heal any disease. If only the entire Chinese population knew this, many rhino lives could have been saved. What Chinese people should do to stop their high demand of rhino horn is to find natural alternatives such as roots, proteins such as Marine Aminos, and medicinal herbs. These substitutes are considered as harmless because they do not create any dependence on people, this is not the case of all the drugs in the market. In the article of the writer Margaret Talbot, “Brain Gain”, she says, “Drugs such as Adderall can cause nervousness, headaches, sleeplessness, and decreased appetite, among other side effects” (265). Indeed, more and more of students use stimulants for cognitive enhancement, because they want to succeed in class and not because they have the symptoms of A.D.H.D. Students lie to the doctors in order to get the drugs, which cause them dependency and sometimes death (Talbot 265). So “if people are properly

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