Anyone remember the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009? Uncle Sam spent $831 billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to “stimulate” the U.S. economy. If you ask “progressives” why it didn’t work they’ll give you a simple answer: “It wasn’t enough.” You can see the exact same philosophy at work when it comes to gun control: it’s not working it’s because we need more! Make it harder to buy a gun! Limit ammunition magazines to seven rounds! Ban black rifles! Same again for poaching. More laws! More enforcement! And so . . . Poaching Crisis Prompts Immediate Protection of Southern White Rhino under ESA [Endangered Species Act] the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service presser proclaims. Yes, the feds are closing the White Rhino loophole . . .
By extending ESA protection to the white rhino—the last remaining unprotected species of rhinoceros—the Service closes a loophole that has been exploited by unscrupulous poachers and traffickers seeking to cash in on global demand for rhino horn.
The action, which was announced yesterday by Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell at the White House Forum to Combat Wildlife Trafficking, will protect the southern white rhinoceros as a threatened species under the ESA’s “similarity of appearance” provisions and will aid international law enforcement efforts to fight poaching and crack down on trafficking in rhino horn. The Service will accept public comment for 30 days on this interim final rule, although ESA protections will begin immediately.
Notice the confidence expressed by Sally’s writers: the ruling “will protect the southern white rhinoceros.” Just like the ESA has protected all the other rhinos, by the Interior Secretary’s own admission:
Rhino poaching has reached unprecedented levels, with South Africa alone recording 668 rhinos poached in 2012 and 446 rhinos killed in the first six months of 2013. This unprecedented killing spree is fueled by an increasing demand for rhino horn, which is ground up and consumed in folk remedies in the unfounded belief that it can cure disease. In fact, the primary component of rhino horn is keratin—the same substance found in fingernails—and scientific testing has repeatedly demonstrated that it has no medicinal value. Rhino horn is also used to produce ceremonial libation cups and other carvings.
Not to mention the unfounded belief that laws against poaching, or trading or consuming the products of poaching, will stop poaching. Yeah right. Kinda like how the federal laws against silencers (suppressors) stopped poaching. Once again, what’s needed here is legal hunting.
Let me be clear: I don’t want to shoot a rhinoceros (unless the rhino poses a credible, imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm and imminence is imminent). I’ve seen them in the wild and they are, as Kirsten Weiss would say, très cool. But there’s only way to protect the species: make their protection more profitable than their destruction. License rhino hunts for mega-bucks, spread the money around and those involved will find a way to protect the rhino.
OMG! Profit! If there’s one thing that Progressives hate it’s profit! And yet they called the stimulus package the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.” Investment my ass. Gun control my ass. ESA my ass. See how that works?