{"id":1055,"date":"2015-05-19T17:05:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T22:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=1055"},"modified":"2015-05-19T17:05:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T22:05:30","slug":"illegal-animal-parts-and-the-consumer-ctd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2015\/05\/19\/illegal-animal-parts-and-the-consumer-ctd\/","title":{"rendered":"Illegal Animal Parts and the Consumer, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Once again working on the <a href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2015\/04\/25\/the-kasane-conference-on-the-illegal-wildlife-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\">demand side of the equation<\/a>, EcoWatch reports on Pembient&#8217;s marketing of a reproduction of rhino horn &#8230; so well done that it may be <a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2015\/05\/08\/3d-printing-rhino-horns-stop-poaching\/\" target=\"_blank\">indistinguishable from the real thing<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It\u2019s unclear how exactly Pembient\u2019s making the products, but as <a href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2015\/04\/27\/cuzscience\/#.sxvy3q:t1RE\" target=\"_blank\">TechCrunch<\/a> explained, \u201cRhino horns are composed of a specific kind of keratin protein. Pembient figured out the genetic code and was then able to reproduce the horns using the keratin in a 3D-printing technique.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Pembient CEO Matthew Markus showed a TechCrunch reporter one of their horn prototypes, Markus said, \u201cYou can\u2019t physically tell the difference. No one looking at this could tell this wasn\u2019t from a rhino. It\u2019s the same thing. For all intents and purposes, this is a real rhino horn.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibtimes.co.uk\/biotech-firm-pembient-roll-out-3d-printed-rhino-horns-curb-poaching-will-it-work-1499578\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>International Business Times<\/strong><\/em><\/a> notes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rhino-poaching figures from South Africa show 1,215 animals were killed in 2014. Demand for the product has increased over the past decade, an upward trend attributed to a rise in living standards in Asia, where the horns are used for traditional medicine.<\/p>\n<p>William Ripple from Oregon State University, who recently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibtimes.co.uk\/world-risk-empty-landscape-biggest-herbivores-face-extinction-1499344\" target=\"_blank\">led a study into herbivore extinction<\/a>\u00a0threats, told <strong>IBTimes UK<\/strong>\u00a0the vast amounts of money involved in the poaching industry means it is difficult to curb. He said: &#8220;The rhino horns sell by weight more than the cost of diamonds, gold or cocaine. There&#8217;s huge amounts of money involved.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But will it work?\u00a0 EcoWatch is not so sure:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>However, conservationists have pointed out that the company\u2019s plan doesn\u2019t placate global demand for real rhino horns, especially in countries where it\u2019s considered a status symbol to own one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once again working on the demand side of the equation, EcoWatch reports on Pembient&#8217;s marketing of a reproduction of rhino horn &#8230; so well done that it may be indistinguishable from the real thing: It\u2019s unclear how exactly Pembient\u2019s making the products, but as TechCrunch explained, \u201cRhino horns are composed \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2015\/05\/19\/illegal-animal-parts-and-the-consumer-ctd\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1056,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions\/1056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}