Poachers don't even try to be humane when they kill a rhino for its horn. They will crush whatever stands in their way, even if it is just a 90lb baby rhino, trying to protect its mother. They use pangas and axes to hack the horn off a rhino's face, regardless of whether the rhino is alive or dead, and leave it without thought. They leave it rotting next to its helpless calf, who will never be able to grow up as it should.
Rhinos are gentle. They are curious when we stop nearby to observe them. They are protective of their calves. They communicate. They are not so unlike us.
Rhinos have few, even no, natural predators. But they have horns, made of keratin, like our fingernails. Horns that some people believe have medicinal properties--properties that are unproven. So people brutally kill them, even young rhinos, for just a nub of horn.
