Official: Black Rhino declared extinct.

[Autumnlicious]

The Black Rhino per se is not extinct, only the Western subspecies. There is a way to preserve the ones that are left:

Give the locals exclusive rights over the rhinos: they can harvest the horns of dead rhinos and whatever else they want from it. That gives them an incentive to actively oppose poaching and to preserve the species and reduces the market value of the horns to poachers: as with marijuana, an outright ban just makes the horns more valuable, and adds to the incentive to poach.

And the locals would, seeing the money the Chinese gives them, sell out their Rhinos. If the Chinese cannot get a good enough deal, they'll sell weapons to the local malcontents and get their damned horns anyways.

I can't believe you compared MARIJUANA to RHINO. Are you retarded? The comparison is absolutely nonsensical. It's easy to illicitly raise and culture marijuana. It is scalable and relatively cheap. You get results in about a year of work. The initial entry-to-market cost is also low (due to flooding of competitors).

Compare that to the time it takes a Rhino to mature. Compare that to the cost (finding a Rhino, tranquilizing it and chainsawing a horn out) and time of gaining that good. There is nothing but disparity in time, cost and the periods of which it costs relatively more or less.

Mind you, there is a considerable demand for both Rhinos and Pot. But, unlike Pot, Rhinos cannot be raised easily and scale to meet such.

So now, all the real link you have to stand on as a potential argument, is that people demand for it. And I point out that people demand for murder. People demand for unreasonable things all the time.

Do we give it to them? No. Do we give even a little? No. Do we scream bloody murder when a small group with disproportionate power LIES about something reasonable (cannabis) really being unreasonable to have? Yes.

I find it radically annoying that you'd even bother to compare something with:
a) a body of research behind it that justifies medical and recreational use.
b) regulated to medical grade standards
c) low barrier to entry, low barrier to leave, low barrier (cost) to enter into market

To something that has:
a) No scientific research legimizing the use and demand of it.
b) high barrier to entry (one needs to gain the gear and physically jet to a location to shoot something --- OR --- pay some locals to do it (hmm, maybe that's why we should allow the locals to sell the damn things?)).
c) No regulation and no standards

Yeah! What a great idea! Let's compare the two!

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Not my problem? But seriously, I've learned to admit that not every animal is important to human well-being.

This matters not.

Condoning this behavior with animals will only encourage more extinctions and further damage to Earth's life diversity. Human beings being top of food chain doesn't mean animals are less important, because we're all depending on Earth's ecosystem.

To deem the animals be important or not important to human well-being is misplaced belief will led the disastrous damage to Earth's life diversity plus ecosystem.

And yet you kudos'ed the guy who proposed we let the locals, in their infinite wisdom (BTW -- it's not like they've been powerless to stop these hunts; it IS their domain) manage that very same species, with the explicit emphasis on them selling it. Now, true, it was prefaced with "from dead .. yaddayadda" -- but that means jack shit when dealing with desperate people.

This region has little to no medical care, little economic activity and almost no education. AID's rates are high as hell and contribute to an apolcalyptic scenario where people you (had you lived in that area) know are dropping like flies almost randomly, because their immune systems have finally crashed and they, the walking dead, have finally succumbed.

And still you kudos the guy, signifying your agreement, who proposes we let these economically desperate and dying peoples be the responsible vendor.

Someone is stupid high right now, and it ain't me.