As Africa's rhino population continues to grow more vulnerable due to poaching and increasing demand for their horns in Asian countries, one organization is taking a different approach to curb the hunting by poisoning the animals' horns. Lorinda Hern, co-founder of the Rhino Rescue Project, explained to HuffPost Live's Josh Zepps on Monday that the "dramatic increase" in rhino poaching over the years is due in part to a rumor that began circulating several years ago in countries like China and Vietnam that the horns had healing powers and were linked to curing many "high-profile individuals" of anything from hangovers to cancer. "Once the cancer rumors started, the poaching just really skyrocketed from there," Hern said. The increase in rhino poaching in recent years is staggering: 17 rhinos in South Africa were poached in 2004, and in 2014 that number jumped to more than 1,200.

 

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