China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes

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Rightey
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PostChina legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Rightey » Tue Oct 30, 2018 3:53 pm

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/anim ... ger-legal/

In China, rhino horn and tiger bone may now be legally used in medical research or traditional medicine following a controversial announcement by the government this morning. The animal specimens may be obtained only from farms, according to the announcement, but conservationists say this surprising move may open the floodgates for a surge in illegal activity and threaten vulnerable animal populations.

The move is “very concerning,” says Leigh Henry, director of wildlife policy at the World Wildlife Fund. Discerning what animals were obtained legally from farms rather than illegally from the wild would be incredibly difficult, so this decision would give cover to traffickers, she says. Rhinos and tigers are both endangered in the wild, and their trade is prohibited. “WWF urgently calls on China to maintain the ban on tiger bone and rhino horn trade which has been so critical in conserving these iconic species. This should be expanded to cover trade in all tiger parts and products,” she says.

Two years ago, China also announced that it would close its domestic ivory market by the end of 2017, earning widespread praise. Conservation groups championed the move as a necessary step to help reduce ivory demand and tamp down poaching of African elephants.

Debbie Banks, Tiger Campaign Leader at the Environmental Investigation Agency, a nonprofit with offices in London and Washington, D.C., says that today’s announcement undermines China’s stance on wildlife protection. “China’s reputation as a leader in conservation following their domestic ban on the sale of ivory now lies in tatters,” she said in an email. “The news today,” she says, “seriously jeopardizes the future survival of wild tigers by stimulating demand for their body parts instead of eradicating demand,” adding that it also puts rhinos at risk in their African and Asian range countries. “The news today is a staggering display of brazen disregard for global opinion.”

The reason China took this step remains unclear. Chinese officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But the growing number of tiger farms in China and efforts to farm rhinos there may be a key driver, environmental groups say. “We’ve been concerned for a long time about the tiger farms in China and the increasing numbers of farms there,” Henry says. “Captive tigers are incredibly expensive to feed and care for, so as these numbers grew, so did pressure on the Chinese government to allow a regulated trade in tiger products. China's decision is what many of us have feared for over a decade.” The Environmental Investigation Agency had reported in 2013 that at least several thousand tigers were being kept at hundreds of farms across the country. Moreover, China also has reportedly started importing rhinos for potential farming. (Learn more: What you need to know about tiger farms.)

Susan Lieberman, vice president for international policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society, a New York-based nonprofit working on global conservation, also believes that the growing number of farmed tigers may be a major factor behind China’s decision. The new legality of tiger bone and rhino horn use, she says, will be a major win for traffickers. “You would want there to be a legal market to hide behind,” she says. Without DNA tests of these products, there’s no way to know if their source is a farm or the wild.

Rhino horn is made from keratin—a protein found in fingernails and hair—and the product is falsely said to help treat everything from cancer to gout when consumed in its powder form. There are no proven medicinal benefits in humans from either product. The most sparing evidence has been brought to bear claiming that rhino horn may somehow help lower fever, at least in rodents. Certainly, cheaper, more readily available medicines such as acetaminophen or aspirin are far more effective, Lieberman says. Tiger bone crushed and made into a paste has been said to be usable to treat a variety of ailments, including rheumatism and back pain. But Lieberman says, “I know of no evidence for that.


Tigers and Rhinos face when:

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Alvin Flummux » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:23 pm

I don't think it would be at all bad to have the militaries of the west send contingents to defend these poor creatures from poachers, where it is possible to do so.

Chinese medicine should be consigned to the history books.

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Moggy
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Moggy » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:24 pm

We should start pretending that panda bones cure diseases.

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Ironhide
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Ironhide » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:36 pm

Alvin Flummux wrote:Chinese medicine should be consigned to the history books.


Mostly this.

However, some of it does actually work, but neither of the two examples here have any medicinal benefits at all .

I don't mind alternative medicine as long as it does work but most of it is utter bollocks for the rich and gullible.

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Saint of Killers
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Saint of Killers » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:41 pm

Rightey wrote:Tigers and Rhinos face when:

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"Guess I'll Die then"


Join the club and be wiped out of existence!

Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds

The huge loss is a tragedy in itself but also threatens the survival of civilisation, say the world’s leading scientists

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... port-finds

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Moggy
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Moggy » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:49 pm

Brerlappin wrote:
Moggy wrote:We should start pretending that panda bones cure diseases.


Or that powedered Chinese dicks are a cure for cancer. See how they like being hunted to extinction


Or we legislate that for every rhino or tiger killed, we will put up 1000 billboards comparing Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh.

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Dual
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Dual » Tue Oct 30, 2018 4:58 pm

Backwards

Just lol @ the Far Easts animal abuse record

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Alvin Flummux » Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:45 pm

Moggy wrote:We should start pretending that panda bones cure diseases.


No, we should start pretending that Chinese people bones cure diseases.

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Drumstick
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Drumstick » Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:40 pm

Oh strawberry float off you absolute banana splits, Rhinos are already endangered.

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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Gemini73 » Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:49 pm

Rhinos and Tigers to be extinct in my lifetime then and for future generations to only see these fabulous animals in documentary films and pictures in books :(

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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by 7256930752 » Tue Oct 30, 2018 8:00 pm

Morons. I worked why a Chinese guy for a few years, probably the smartest person I've ever met yet he was adamant that Chinese medicine cured things that Western medicine couldn't. Genuinely baffling that someone so learned could be such a strawberry floating idiot at the same time.

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Preezy
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PostRe: China legalizes Rhino Horn and Tiger Bone for Medical Purposes
by Preezy » Tue Oct 30, 2018 8:06 pm

If alternative medicine worked it would just be called medicine. strawberry float China.


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