Rhino hunt

What does everyone think about this Rhino hunt?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-giv ... cid=AARDHP

It's a pity that any animal might have to die for anything such as this. But, is it a good think that funds from this event may help conservation efforts, etc. ?

And, what about the belief that the Rhino horn may be able to help cure cancer?

It's sad. You don't fund conservation by killing an endangered animal for the sake of a trophy. It just defeats the purpose. I get that hunting and fishing licenses can fund conservation efforts and that hunters have an interest in maintaining populations, but when a species is this close to gone allowing hunting, even of problem individuals or animals past breeding age, just sends the wrong message. The idea that rhino horn can cure cancer and a myriad of other illnesses has no basis in medical science whatsoever, but unfortunately, that belief is one of the key drivers behind their near extinction. Poachers can make a lot of money by killing these animals just for their horns, and they're not above killing mother rhinos with babies, thus leaving the babies orphaned and unlikely to live to adulthood. Rhino horn is composed of keratin, which is the same protein that makes up human hair and fingernails. Eating your hair and fingernails won't cure cancer, so neither will eating rhino horn.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 144951.htm
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013 ... -In-Africa

The fact that these magnificent (and endangered) animals die for trophies and for the sake of what is basically fake medicine is, in my opinion, pathetic. I think we probably have better ways to preserve these animals than allowing those with enough money to kill one.

I don't think there's any research out there that suggests that a parts or any part of an animal such as the rhinoceros or any other mammal, can cure any form of cancer. It's right up there with the belief that HIV can be cured with other superstitious nonsense that people do.

Now plants, fungi, bacteria on the other hand, and their byproducts, have had successful studies showing that they can fight some types of cancer, but not all. To my knowledge about mammals, no such luck. But I would love to be proven wrong with evidence in a nonrandomized, nonbiased, clinical trial, double blinded.

I don't quite follow animal-rights as much as others, so I don't know the rhinoceros is endangered, nor if there are any usable byproducts from these animals other than trophies, but if it is endangered, they certainly should not be hunted. Unless one stampedes into your village or your home, but the likelihood of that happening to a hunting tourist is unlikely, so self-defense can't be argued by them either.