Rescue Rhinos From Extinction!

Relentless poaching is driving these majestic creatures to extinction!

Add your name if you want to fight this problem at the source, and save rhinos before it's too late!

"South Africa – a country that holds nearly 80% of the world's rhinos – saw more than 1000 rhinos killed every year between 2013 and 2017.

An average of "two and a half rhinos are still being killed every day.

And "rhino poaching had risen by 9,000% in South Africa between 2007 and 2014," according to Men's Health.

Why are poachers killing these wonderful creatures?

Because it's BIG money.

"The demand for rhino horn has been driven by Asian countries, particularly Vietnam, and is used predominantly in traditional Chinese medicine.

"However, due to its status symbol – many believe rhino horn is a sign of success and wealth ­– there remains a worldwide demand," said the same article.

You know when huge profits are to be made, criminals will stop at nothing.

Men's Health went on to say: "such is this demand, poachers – often local to the area – are now being supplied with high-tech equipment to track and kill rhinos, paid for by international criminal gangs.

"As a result, the method of extracting the horn is brutal.

"A tranquilizer gun is used to bring the rhino down, before its horn is hacked off from the rhino's head.

"When the rhino wakes – in most cases, they're still alive during this process – they are left to bleed to death, bewildered and in pain."

So what's the solution?

We must legalize rhino horn.

I know it sounds wild... but hear me out.

You know the history of alcohol prohibition in the USA, right?

No matter how strict the punishments were, and no matter how much booze was seized by the authorities, the demand for alcohol remained.

Criminals stepped in to keep the supply flowing, and made themselves rich in the process.

The prohibition on the sale of rhino horn is no different.

Any educated person will realize that rhino horn is merely made of keratin, the same stuff as your hair and fingernails, and it has no medicinal properties whatsoever.

But if someone truly believes it's "medicine"...

So much that they're willing to pay thousands of dollars for a few grams...

No one is going to convince them otherwise.

Rhino horn can be harvested safely. It can grow back, just like hair and fingernails.

"There has been an international ban on the trade since 1977 but it was legal to trade within the borders of South Africa until 2009.

"John Hume," a South African rhino farmer, "claims there is a direct correlation between the timing of the domestic ban and the increase in rhino poaching, which peaked in the country in 2014," according to The Telegraph.

"'The moratorium flared it up, cut all the horn from going to Vietnam.

"So what did they [the Vietnamese] do? They went to Mozambique, did a deal with the poor people of Mozambique to kill our rhinos, and our poaching rocketed from nothing to over a thousand a year," said Hume.

In other words, he believes there is a direct correlary relationship between banning the sale of rhino horn and an increase in poaching.

I agree. Don't you?

By raising rhinos ethically, and harvesting their horns in a humane way, disadvantaged African communities can develop a sustainable industry for themselves. The trade can be regulated, taxed, and used to help people.

And most importantly of all: this will destroy the black market for rhino horn.

When the price goes down, the criminals give up, and they stop shooting rhinos for profit. They will simply have no incentive to kill a rhino, because there is no money to be made.

John Hume said: "Just like your diamonds, your booze, your cigarettes, everything in the world may find its way into a criminal's hands.

"The more horns you can sell to Vietnam, the more rhinos in Kruger National Park you will save."

The path forward is clear: we must legalize the sale of rhino horn.

This is how we rescue rhinos from extinction.

So how do we make it happen?

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) is the body that governs the international wildlife trade, reported National Geographic.

That's why we're calling on Ivonne Higuero, the Secretary-General of CITES, to listen to reason and put forward a motion that would destroy the black market for rhino horn, and remove the incentive poachers have to slaughter rhinos for profit.

Don't you want to save the world's rhinos from extinction?

Then add your name to ask Ivonne Higuero, CITES Secretary-General to legalize the trade in rhino horn, so that it can be farmed and harvested humanely, controlled, and taxed responsibly! This is how we save rhinos!