Kill our rhinos and you can die

It’s about time. That’s all we can say about the new programme to inject radioactive material into rhino horns as a way of combating the tsunami of poaching, which looks to be heading to make the species extinct within a generation.

South African scientists began this week injecting radioactive material into live rhino horns to make them easier to detect at border posts.

James Larkin, director of the University of the Witwatersrand’s radiation and health physics unit who spearheaded the initiative, told AFP he had put “two tiny little radioactive chips in the horn” as he administered the radioisotopes on one of the large animals’ horns.

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The dose of radioactive material is “strong enough to set off detectors that are installed globally” at international border posts originally installed “to prevent nuclear terrorism”.

Larkin said Border agents often have hand-held radiation detectors, which can detect contraband in addition to thousands of radiation detectors installed at ports and airports, the scientists said.

This does not endanger the health of the animals. However, we believe that, of far more importance, because of its possible dramatic effect on the demand for rhino horn, is the fact that the substance is poisonous to humans.

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Hopefully, once that fact gets more well-known, those people in Asia who are the main customers for powdered rhino horn – using it for everything from a health treatment to an aphrodisiac – will realise that they are playing Russian roulette with their lives and their health.

They won’t know which horns have been impregnated with the poisonous material, so perhaps demand will evaporate.

While this may seem like a drastic move, we can morally justify its potentially harmful effect on people by pointing out that we have no more options in the fight for rhinos If you want to kill our rhinos, you may also die in the process.