Poaching is a plague that has bothered world governments for years. It remains an abolished act, and this right here is proof of why.
The airport security officials have been able to detain a 21 year old man at the Hong Kong International Airport due to the fact that he was carrying luggage that contained illegal goods whose values amounted to well over $80,000; a crime that could land this man in prison for a decade at the very least.
The authorities at the airport discovered that apart from the luggage that this man checked into the airport, there was another black plastic bag that was tied to it. When they proceeded to search the bag as well as its contents, they found that it contained almost 7 pounds of odd shapes that were made out of keratin; the substance that I found inside the fingernails of people.
It all seems normal, right?
Well, no. When they researched further into these products, they found out that the keratin that was used to make these odd shapes, they weren’t gotten from human fingernails at all. Rather, the keratin was gotten from the horn of a rhinoceros.
Do you feel weirded out yet? Well, here’s an even stranger twist to the story; this man has been able to mysteriously find a way to sneak this his bag with him as he traveled all the way through Beira, Mozambique, Johannesburg (the capital of South Africa, for your information) and Doha (in Qatar). While investigation is thought to still be going on as regards his operations, the way he managed to get these horns past customs and authorities in a these countries really is really everyone’s guess.
Statistics have showed that in the year 2017 alone, about 1,028 rhinos were killed by poachers alone in South Africa. When you think of this, it means that on an average, about 3 rhinos were killed on a daily basis.
Trinkets- just like the ones that were seized from this an in Hong Kong – are what continue to drive the demand for the horns of rhinos. Inn Eastern medicine, these rhino horns are extremely valuable due to the fact that they are said to be the cure to a wide array of ailments, including but not limited to hangovers and gout.
As a means of making a quick buck, these poachers go on to ill the rhinos, only to cut their horns off. From there, they give the horns to traffickers, who are tasked with the responsibility off figuring out how to effectively conceal the products and get them though airports, customs, and border authorities. The most popular forms of concealment include jewelry and toys for children. However, to get them to China, traffickers also try to hide these horns by lodging them into electronic products.
China remains the biggest market in the world for these illegal rhino horns.
Although authorities have been commended for making this arrest, the truth is that this remains nothing more than a drop in the bucket. There is admittedly still a very long way to go until every rhino that is left on the planet can be considered as safe from poachers and the horrors that come from those who engage in this despicable trade.
This man should go to prison for his crimes. He definitely deserves it.