Radioactive Rhino

[franzfmdavis]

What could possibly go wrong?

South African rhino horns turned radioactive to fight poachers

The scheme is the latest innovation in decades of work aiming to protect South Africa’s rhinos.

www.bbc.com

 

[JimP]

The problem that I see is that the poachers won't be deterred and will just keep on killing them.

It's no different than when the game departments would capture the rhino and saw the horn off. The snares and traps just kept on killing then.

 

[deewayne2003]

Can the injected radioactive material be of such a high concentration that it will kill anyone who consumes it as medicine?

If so.... GAME ON! - Just need a few emergency news articles in China from people agonizing in pain for weeks as a slow death from the tainted rhino horn to really make a dent in demand.

 

[mrpoindexter]

I don't think you can get the radiation high enough for that without endangering the rhino. Also, they would just use a geiger counter to check it before the syndicates bought it.

 

[franzfmdavis]

Maybe they are hoping that it will mutate and kill the poacher:

 

[Excessexpress]

Isn’t Godzilla a radioactive creature?

 

[sureshot375]

This has been going on for over 20 years. I haven’t a friend of a friend who worked as a chemist for the SA government.

If I recall correctly they were putting some type of rare isotope in the rhino horn. After that they could detect if that horn had been in a vehicle or a helicopter. I believe it may have resulted in some convictions and/or seized vehicles and aircraft.