Butchering animals in the name of quackery

Here, ladies and gents, is the inevitable result of so many various types of bogus “medicines” and irrational, ignorant beliefs:

“A rhinoceros lies dead after being killed at Krugersdorp Nature Reserve outside Johannesburg July 14, 2010. Booming demand from increasingly rich Asian markets has led to a spike in rhino poaching in South Africa this year, officials say.” (HO/REUTERS) [source: thestar.com]

Poachers have butchered the last adult rhinoceros at a South African game reserve, cutting off her horn and letting her bleed to death, the chief game ranger says.

“We’ve had rhinos here for 20 years,” Japie Mostert told the Star on Thursday from the Krugersdorp Game Reserve, 60 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. “She was the last one.”

The nine-year-old rhino at the 1,400-hectare reserve was likely attacked by poachers who hovered in a helicopter, shot her with a tranquillizer dart then leapt out and sliced her horn off with a chainsaw, Mostert said.

The reason for this senseless and barbaric killing? To fuel the penile-enlargement fantasies of ever-richer Asian tycoons, amongst other uses of the brand of bullshit known as “Traditional Chinese Medicine” (TCM). Quick tip: If the sort of treatment you’re looking into has both “medicine” and either “traditional” or “alternative” in the name, it’s probably safe to discount it as the unscientific and dangerous nonsense that it promises to be. If it possessed real curative properties, it would stop being “alternative” and would just be plain old medicine.

Proponents of these “alternative medicines” always argue that, even if their treatments are crap that doesn’t work, at least they aren’t harmful to people. Unfortunately, this is blatantly false on two broad fronts. First, people who are mislead into using these bullshit remedies are less likely to seek out actual, evidence-based treatment (ie. “Western” medicine), which leads to them undergoing unnecessary suffering and even death because they refused the real medicine that would have saved them. And second, you can’t tell me that the alternate “medicines” that originate from living animals don’t cause harm and death – just look at the damned picture, above.

Shysters who peddle this sort of wicked snake-oil are just that: con-men who mislead those who are unfortunately ignorant, gullible or stupid enough to fall for their rosy promises of miracle cures with only the prospect of lining their pockets with ever-bigger wads of cash in their minds. They are beneath despicable; they ought to be held accountable as the frauds and criminals they are. Sadly, in so many parts of the world – certain areas of our supposedly advanced and superior “Western” world included – they are instead allowed to thrive thanks to misinformation and superstition.

And innocent individuals, be they human or animal, suffer.

(via Pharyngula)

Tags: Traditional Chinese Medicine • Traditional Chinese Medicines • quackery • quacks • TCM • animal abuse • rhinoceroses • rhinos • poaching • poachers