Not only is the large, twisting antler on your forehead a source of

constant pain and ridicule, it's also considered a powerful aphrodisiac by many cultures.

from the Onion's Lloyd Schumner.

:thumbsup:

Apparently there's a large black-market for DUer antlers.

You mean this one with a big net on the floor?

One of the completely peripheral issues in evidence at the Boston rally against the Iraq war was that the Chinese are apparently raising bears in captivity, to harvest their gall bladders for traditional Chinese medicinal purposes.

What's wrong with that idea? How better to *preserve* the species, especially when everything else the Chinese are doing is going to eliminate their native habitat? (And what's going to happen to the panda, if we don't learn how to breed them in captivity?)

Among other charismatic megafauna that we're losing, the rhinoceros is particularly close to extinction, due to both habitat loss and persistent poaching. It seems there's a cultural thing amongst our great and good friends the Saudis, where you're not fully a man unless you carry a special kind of knife, traditionally made with a handle of rhino horn.

There was a guy in Texas, no less, who was trying to figure out how to ranch rhinos, to serve that market. But he couldn't get a permit.

What's better *for the species*-- to raise them in what admittedly is a pale imitation of their native habitat, but to let them live out their natural spans in comparative comfort, and then sell their useful bits after their demise? Or to gun them down in the wild, at the risk of dooming the whole population (not to mention what it does for respect for the rule of law, and the earth)?