- OPINION
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- 3-min read
Rhinoceros - A magical myth of death
An inside scoop on older generation's perception of the rhinoceros's horn.
We all know that rhinoceros horns and human nails are made up of one exact ingredient. They all contain keratin, one kind of protein. However, some people in the previous generation do not believe that. They tend to think that the rhinoceros' horns must have some "magic" so that Eastern medical listed them like a kind of wonderful medicine. So sad that my mother is one in the group of people who believe in this myth. She told me that she had witted her friend, who got lung cancer used a rhinoceros' horns to treat his sickness. Although, after a period of time fought against lung cancer, he dead, my mother still believed that because of the horns, her friend was less painful than without using it. Whenever I mentioned wrong thinkings about the rhinoceros’ horns, she rejected it immediately.
I always feel sad when thinking about this story. The explanation about the rhinoceros' horns has been given for a long time. However, there is still a group of people who are reluctant to accept this. Sadder to say, my mother and her friend are working in the primary education field. They teach young children. Imagine that they continue teaching young children to believe in the outdated myth, that would be terrible. The fate of rhinoceros and other species of animals obsess horns will be more and more dangerous.
It seems to be hard to convince the previous generations to reject the idea that the rhinoceros' horns are wonderful. However, the old age group is always considered to be potential customers for the horn market. It is time for our generation to have stronger actions to prevent this problem. The most effective way is to make a campaign to propagandize the factual truth about the rhinoceros' horns, sell printed T-shirts to make people pay more attention to this problem.
