Group: Last Javan rhino in Vietnam killed for horn

[vminfla]

Source: Associated Press

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) – Vietnam has lost its fight to save its rare Javan rhinoceros population after poachers apparently killed the country's last animal for its horn, pushing one of the world's most endangered species closer to extinction, a conservation group said Tuesday.

Vietnam's Cat Tien National Park has had no sightings, footprints or dung from live rhinos since the last known animal living there was found dead last April, shot through the leg with its horn chopped off, the WWF said. Genetic analysis of rhino feces had confirmed in 2004 that at least two rhinos were living in the park, raising hopes that Vietnam's population might survive.

Only 40 to 60 Javan rhinos now remain in Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia. They are the last known living members of the species, with none in captivity.

Demand for rhino horn has surged in recent years among Vietnamese and Chinese who believe it can cure an array of ailments. Horns can now fetch up to $50,000 per pound (about $100,000 per kilogram), the WWF report said Tuesday. A small amount of ground-up powder can bring hundreds of dollars on the black market. Global demand has also increased in the last four to five years as some people have begun to consider rhino horn a remedy for cancer, Williams said.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-10-25/vietnam-javan-rhino/50900574/1

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A crying shame

[Robb]

1. As a species, with our luck, it *was* a cure for cancer. (nt)

[russspeakeasy]

4. Probably Pfizer sales reps killed it.

[harvey007]

2. Selfish, arrogant humans

:mad:

[dorksied]

3. As a human being, I'd volunteer to be patient zero for a pathogen to wipe us all out,

especially after reading a story like this.

[Confusious]

6. Probably 99 percent of the species who ever existed

are extinct.

The universe doesn't play nice either.

At least some humans care. The universe doesn't.

[Orrex]

11. Give us time

We've only been at the species-ending game for a handful of millennia. Who knows that we could accomplish, given a few million more years?

And if humans really do "care," then so does the universe. The universe isn't a thing separate from its components, after all...

[Confusious]

13. If there are no humans, there still is a universe

You can talk about one without the other. The Universe doesn't care one way or the other whether a species survives, as much as you would like to give it disneyesque qualities.

we could also grow up in a few thousand years.

If you read history, things have gotten better.

and the first KNOWN extinction we caused was during the roman empire. everything before is just speculation.

[Orrex]

15. Disneyesque?!? Who the fuck are you talking to?

I.suspect that no one on DU has a less Disneyesque view of the universe that I do.

And how have "things gotten better" in your estimation? Our campaign of deforestation is killing species at a rate not seen in humam history!

[Confusious]

16. Humans are growing up

We're passing out of the terrible twos, though there are a few who are still stuck there. Corporations are the embodiment of that.

Your last sentence proves it. "Our campaign of deforestation is killing species at a rate not seen in humam history."

Would someone 200 years ago even care? 400 years ago they were enslaving Indians to work in silver mines. England chopped down it's forest to build a navy.

It's not happening quickly, we may not go fast enough before global warming gets us, but it's happening.

[Confusious]

5. Alternative medicine

where's the harm?

[Fearless]

12. How about hunting an entire species into extinction for snake oil?

[Confusious]

14. My point exactly.

[Dont call me Shirley]

7. The 1% are the purchasers of this stuff, they are causing extinctions worldwide.

[ClarkUSA]

8. The Vietnam government refused to allow captive breeding, condemning the species to extinction.

[and-justice-for-all]

9. The human animal disgust me...nt

[Orrex]

10. Whoever killed it, I'm sure their motives had nothing to do with alternative medicine.

Absolutdly sure.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. yup.

[Odin2005]

17. Alternative medicine kills.

[Nihil]

18. Greed kills.

Not every "alternative medicine" kills but all types of greed do.

Slaughtering a rhino for its horn is a money-making exercise for
the poachers. They don't care if the buyer is going to grind the
"horn" down into powder for the gullible or simply polish it up
for sale as a dagger handle for the insecure.

The result is the same: yet another endangered creature has been
killed for the sole purpose of money.

:grr:

[snooper2]

19. All because of ignorant "woo" believing humans

[The Stranger]

20. They couldn't defend a single fucking animal? The whole country of Viet Nam?