oes a children’s book hold the key to saving rhinos from extinction?
Teresa Telecky hopes it’s a first step.
“By stopping demand for rhino horn, we will save rhinos,” explains Telecky, wildlife director for Humane Society International, which wrote, produced, and distributed 5,000 copies of I’m a Little Rhino to schoolchildren in Vietnam. The book is designed to educate children and in turn their families, asking them to pledge never to use or buy rhino horn.
The project is part of a three-year campaign recently launched by HSI and the government of Vietnam to reduce poaching of endangered rhinos, who are dying at the rate of two per day. Authorities there turned to HSI for help after being identified as the world’s largest consumer of rhino horn.
The horn has long been used as a traditional medicine in Asia based on the cultural belief that it improves overall health. In 2007, a rumor spread throughout Vietnam that rhino horn also cured cancer, significantly driving up demand. A recent public opinion survey suggests that only a small percent of the Vietnamese population buys or uses the illegal product, but even 2 percent of a population of 92 million means 1.8 million people.