A group of government agencies burned about $1 million worth of rhino-related items Thursday as a statement to the rest of the world that the black market for rhino horn must be shut down.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, San Diego Zoo and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife held a ceremony at the zoo where officials burned confiscated rhino horn items. Among them were whole horns, ornate objects and items that were marketed as medicines.
The message to the rest of the world was to stop the rhino horn black market or risk losing the endangered animal.
“The poaching of rhinos in Africa is an international tragedy that is pushing these magnificent creatures to the brink of extinction,” said Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“Their survival hangs in the balance and will continue to do so as long as people are buying and selling illegal wildlife products. Only a rhino needs a rhino horn, and it’s time we all understood that.”
According to the service, only 20,000 white rhinos and 5,000 black rhinos are left in the wild.
A rhino is killed illegally every eight hours in Africa and it’s possible that all rhinos will be extinct in the wild in 15 years, the agency said.
Last year, 1,175 rhinos were killed in South Africa, where the largest proportion of the remaining rhinos in the world live.
The horn of black rhinos is coveted as a status symbol and is also sold as a medicine, though it is made up of the same material that makes up human fingernails. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service blames the false cures for driving up the amount of poaching in Africa.
