# Karma's a bitch, eh, poacher? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 7, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171 "2019-04-07T13:53:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/1 "2019-04-07T13:53:43Z")
[Suspected rhino poacher killed by elephants, body eaten by lions.](https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/07/africa/south-africa-rhino-poacher-eaten/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/2 "2019-04-07T14:13:08Z")
I believe death penalty proponents call that “closure”. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/3 "2019-04-07T14:21:15Z")
Now if only the buyers of rhino horn could be somehow convinced that ingesting it won’t make their dicks hard, we’d have a win situation. ---
**Author:** ![HowSoonIsThen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@HowSoonIsThen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HowSoonIsThen)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/4 "2019-04-07T14:39:52Z")
Poaching sucks, but I’d feel happier if the rich people buying this stuff were trampled instead of the very likely poor (economically) poacher. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/5 "2019-04-07T14:44:30Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Now if only the buyers of rhino horn could be somehow convinced that ingesting it won’t make their dicks hard, we’d have a win situation. Actually, it’s largely an urban legend that rhino horns are harvested for aphrodisiac purposes. Rhino horn has many non aphrodisiac uses in traditional Chinese medicine. But a major new market for rhino horn has now arisen in Vietnam, where apparently modern myths have appeared claiming that rhino horn can cure cancer and hangovers. > **[The Hard Truth about the Rhino Horn "Aphrodisiac" Market](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hard-truth-about-the-rhino-horn-aphrodisiac-market/)** > > Media coverage hyping the supposed use of rhino horn to pump up sex drive does no favors for conservation efforts ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/6 "2019-04-07T15:51:47Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Actually, it’s largely an urban legend that rhino horns are harvested for aphrodisiac purposes. Rhino horn has many non aphrodisiac uses in traditional Chinese medicine. But a major new market for rhino horn has now arisen in Vietnam, where apparently modern myths have appeared claiming that rhino horn can cure cancer and hangovers. > > [The Hard Truth about the Rhino Horn "Aphrodisiac" Market | Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hard-truth-about-the-rhino-horn-aphrodisiac-market/) Christ, how wicked is your hangover that you’re willing to pay poached rhino horn prices for relief from it? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/7 "2019-04-07T16:16:09Z")
The article emphasized how little of the dead poacher’s remains were found. Well, if they are sincere about recovering what’s left of him, they should bone up on [scat-tracking](http://icwdm.org/Inspection/Scat.aspx), and focus their studies on lion faeces. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/8 "2019-04-07T16:23:09Z")
I hope these two jackass poachers get a shitload of karma thrown back at them. A couple bear maulings wouldn’t be enough. > **[Video of father and son illegally killing mama bear, shrieking cubs released...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/28/video-father-and-son-killing-bear-cubs-alaksa-poaching-illegally-renner-andrew-owen/3299259002/)** > > Andrew Renner and Owen Renner were sentenced after being filmed poaching a bear and her two cubs on Esther Island Prince William Sound in Alaska ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/9 "2019-04-07T18:48:38Z")
This illustrates one of the key differences between lions and tigers–lions will abandon pants as worthless, while tigers are very fashion-concious and [are willing to negotiate away a good meal in exchange for a nice pair of blue trousers](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiger_grand_in_blue_trousers.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/10 "2019-04-07T18:57:08Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Actually, it’s largely an urban legend that rhino horns are harvested for aphrodisiac purposes. Rhino horn has many non aphrodisiac uses in traditional Chinese medicine. But a major new market for rhino horn has now arisen in Vietnam, where apparently modern myths have appeared claiming that rhino horn can cure cancer and hangovers. > > [The Hard Truth about the Rhino Horn "Aphrodisiac" Market | Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-hard-truth-about-the-rhino-horn-aphrodisiac-market/) I prefer to rely upon oxaliplatin … seemed to kick my stage 3 tumors into submission just fine [well, except for the nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but I will put up with a lot of physical abuse for not having to have surgery!] I will take my rhinos live and wandering around somewhere grassy and hunter free. [I adore that bunch of game wardens who live with their rhinos to keep them safe. Major fucking kudos to them.] ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/11 "2019-04-07T21:10:34Z")
YESYESYES!! Bravo, Rhino! Bravo, Lions! > [@Chefguy](#): > > Now if only the buyers of rhino horn could be somehow convinced that ingesting it won’t make their dicks hard, we’d have a win situation. Or it makes your dick rock-hard for five minutes and then it falls off. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/12 "2019-04-07T23:39:21Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > This illustrates one of the key differences between lions and tigers–lions will abandon pants as worthless, while tigers are very fashion-concious and [are willing to negotiate away a good meal in exchange for a nice pair of blue trousers](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiger_grand_in_blue_trousers.jpg). 1908? Honestly, people in those days would’ve put pants on Donald Duck. ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/13 "2019-04-07T23:48:26Z")
I get it. Poaching is awful, poaching for rhino horns is awful even by the standards of poaching, as the animal is sometimes mutilated while conscious and left to suffer. And it’s sort of poetic justice for a poacher to be killed by the very animals they hunt. But. This was an actual human being, who was horrifically killed. As **HowSoonIsThen** alludes to, this poacher, as is the case with most African poachers, was likely an individual who lived in poverty and earned subsistence wages, at best, from poaching. As awful as poaching is, seeing your children hungry, or sick from easily treatable illnesses, because you can’t afford enough food, or medicine and medical treatment, is far worse. If poaching is the easiest way to earn enough cash to keep you and your family fed, clothed, and housed, I sympathize with the poacher. As I stated to start, I get the impulse to feel a kind of thrill of justice done when coming across this sort of story. But, it is a human tragedy, and celebrating the death of a human being this way is just ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/14 "2019-04-07T23:59:37Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Christ, how wicked is your hangover that you’re willing to pay poached rhino horn prices for relief from it? Silly We$terner, ground-up rhino horn is good for lots and lots of conditions according to Traditional Chinese Medicine: \*Powdered Rhino horn in Traditional Chinese Medicine is prescribed for fevers and convulsions, typhoid, rheumatism, gout, headaches and hallucinations, vomiting and food poisoning, as well as good ole possession by the devil (Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shih-chen, A.D. 1597). But Rhino horn is made of keratin, meaning it’s just as effective as grinding up your own fingernails and eating them. (Note to self – might be a good business strategy for when rhinos are gone) Studies have shown that all of these medical claims for all of these rare body parts are false and useless. But this has not stopped TCM from getting its own “scientific” journal, the Chinese Medicine Journal. This new journal is published by BioMed Central which is owned by Springer Verlag, a science publishing giant who has decided that embracing a new huge audience is more important than rigorous scientific integrity or the preservation of endangered species."\* > **[Extinction By Traditional Chinese Medicine - An Environmental Disaster](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/08/08/extinction-by-traditional-chinese-medicine-an-environmental-disaster/#6c3be5ed5bd3)** > > Endangered species are being killed at an alarming rate for the sole crime of being the core of nasty cultural traditions. Their body parts are the stock and trade of monstrous poachers exploiting these primitive beliefs for the whims of the nouveau... What the linked article doesn’t mention are numerous plant species also being driven to extinction by the market for useless TCM remedies, or the credulous people in Western countries who buy into this nonsense and contribute to species loss. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/15 "2019-04-08T03:58:54Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > This was an actual human being, who was horrifically killed. As **HowSoonIsThen** alludes to, this poacher, as is the case with most African poachers, was likely an individual who lived in poverty and earned subsistence wages, at best, from poaching. As awful as poaching is, seeing your children hungry, or sick from easily treatable illnesses, because you can’t afford enough food, or medicine and medical treatment, is far worse. If poaching is the easiest way to earn enough cash to keep you and your family fed, clothed, and housed, I sympathize with the poacher. Did you watch the video in the OP? Today’s poachers are part of organized crime, and are far from poor. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/16 "2019-04-08T06:02:45Z")
> [@](#): > > What the linked article doesn’t mention are numerous plant species also being driven to extinction by the market for useless TCM remedies, or the credulous people in Western countries who buy into this nonsense and contribute to species loss. Last year someone [was killed by a bear in Tennessee while poaching ginseng](https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2018/09/rangers-kill-black-bear-might-have-killed-man-poaching-ginseng-great-smoky-mountains). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/17 "2019-04-08T09:40:06Z")
There were also two or three poachers [killed by lions](https://abcnews.go.com/International/alleged-rhino-poachers-mauled-death-lions-south-africa/story?id=56400969) last year. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/18 "2019-04-08T11:37:45Z")
[QUOTE=gdave;21579000As **HowSoonIsThen** alludes to, this poacher, as is the case with most African poachers, was likely an individual who lived in poverty and earned subsistence wages, at best, from poaching.[/quote] Naah. It’s a nice sob story, but like others have said, these are [criminal syndicates](http://www.krugerpark.co.za/kruger-park-news-ex-cop-knp-staff-mozambicans-arrested-25488.html)in it for a profit. R5 million in cash is hardly “living in poverty and earning subsistence wages” by any means. > [@](#): > > As awful as poaching is, seeing your children hungry, or sick from easily treatable illnesses, because you can’t afford enough food, or medicine and medical treatment, is far worse. Firstly - South Africa has socialized medicine, and government grants for children. Not perfect, quite resource-stretched, especially in the rural areas around Kruger, but not a pay-or-die situation. No kid is going to go untreated just because their parent can’t pay. Secondly \*- just maybe \*those kids could have used some of the \*\*R250 million \*\*used each year to combat poaching in Kruger alone…:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/19 "2019-04-08T12:32:35Z")
> [@gdave](#): > > I get it. Poaching is awful, poaching for rhino horns is awful even by the standards of poaching, as the animal is sometimes mutilated while conscious and left to suffer. And it’s sort of poetic justice for a poacher to be killed by the very animals they hunt. > > But. > > This was an actual human being, who was horrifically killed. As **HowSoonIsThen** alludes to, this poacher, as is the case with most African poachers, was likely an individual who lived in poverty and earned subsistence wages, at best, from poaching. As awful as poaching is, seeing your children hungry, or sick from easily treatable illnesses, because you can’t afford enough food, or medicine and medical treatment, is far worse. If poaching is the easiest way to earn enough cash to keep you and your family fed, clothed, and housed, I sympathize with the poacher. > > As I stated to start, I get the impulse to feel a kind of thrill of justice done when coming across this sort of story. But, it is a human tragedy, and celebrating the death of a human being this way is just ugly. No, screw that noise. Feeling sorry for this poacher would be like feeling sorry for a Nazi. I don’t have it in me. Also, you don’t have a clue that is this poacher’s situation. Maybe he just loves killing mega fauna and has always been cruel to animals. Maybe he poachers just to make money for his addiction. See we call all play this lets make up a back story game for a monster. I do worry they might decide they have to track down the lions and shoot them as they have eaten something that was once human. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2019, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171/20 "2019-04-08T13:07:41Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I do worry they might decide they have to track down the lions and shoot them as they have eaten something that was once human. Not going to happen. Firstly, how are they going to know _which_ lions? Secondly, the rangers know the idea that animals develop a “taste for human flesh” is bunk. Thirdly, nobody really gives a flying fuck for a dead poacher, so why put in the effort? Fourthly - the lions just scavenged a dead body, surely it’s the _elephant_ that should be considered more dangerous? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karmas-a-bitch-eh-poacher/832171.md?page=2)