A pinch of powdered chimpanzee bone, some gecko saliva, a dash of vulture brain.
These are not the ingredients of a fairytale witches’ brew, but some of the prized substances helping drive the multi-billion dollar illegal trade in animal parts touted to cure anything from a hangover or asthma, to cancer and AIDS.
Dwindling numbers
Along with better-known products such as rhino horn, pangolin scales, and tiger bone, dealers do a brisk trade in some more obscure ones too — dried seahorse, sloth claws, manta ray gills, and macaque embryos.
Many are creatures listed as endangered. And while some of the products are key constituents in centuries-old traditional cures prescribed by healers in Asia and Africa, others are fictional cure-alls sold by cynical quacks, experts say.
“We do see modern-day snake oil salesmen,” said John Scanlon, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
While stressing “we will never criticise any traditional practices,” he condemned “people who are promoting certain wildlife products as having properties that have no association with traditional medicine.”
These include peddlers of rhino horn to cure cancer — an unproven claim that has contributed to the decimation of these majestic beasts. “The current rhino poaching crisis, which began around 2007... does have its origins in bogus medicinal use,” said Richard Thomas of TRAFFIC, which monitors wild animal trade.
A surge in demand in Vietnam is ascribed to a senior politician claiming in the mid-2000s that rhino horn cured his cancer.
Urban myth
“This has no basis in scientific fact, but was almost certainly the urban myth that led to the crisis,” said Mr. Thomas.
The scales of the pangolin, or scaly anteater, are sold raw or fried in Asia for as much as $500 per kilogram for treating asthma and migraines, or stimulate milk production in breast-feeding women.
And according to Mr. Thomas, “there is no scientific evidence to support any supposed properties” of pangolin scales.
