Only when the last of the animal’s horns, tusks, skin and bones are sold, will Mankind realize that money can never buy back our wildlife” - Paul Oxton Poaching is a big problem all over the world and results in many species of animals becoming endangered. To try and protect some of the more endangered animals like the Rhino, game rangers have tried surgical removal of the animal’s horn to make the rhino useless to poachers. The removal of animals’ horns to protect them against poachers is not the most effective anti-poaching solution. This essay will show why the removal of the animal’s horn is not a good solution by showing the negative effects of removing the horn, the cost of removing the horn, what is done with the horns and how the removal of the horn has reduced poaching. Animals like Rhinos are poached for their horns as they are used for medicinal purposes and jewelry. Horns cannot be removed completely as the horn base may be damaged and result in a deformed horn when it grows out. Logan Forbes from Wildlife Rehabilitation/ Chengeta …show more content…
Darting- , veterinary- and chopper fees are some of the many costs attached to horn removal. The cost of dehorning is in excess of R8000 per animal although the cost is reduced if more than one animal is dehorned at a time, as the chopper charges per hour. These costs cannot be regenerated as the rhino horn cannot be legally sold, resulting in no income from the rhino to pay for the dehorning process. Due to the horn growing back relatively quickly, the animal will have to be dehorned roughly every 12-18 months. It would cost about US$5-8 million to dehorn the entire rhino population in the Kruger National Park just once. Each horn has to be registered and microchipped when it goes into storage which is very time consuming, creates paper work as well as registration fees payable. A yearly dehorning program would be extremely expensive to