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in Asia, but by now, poachers have already wiped out most of Asia’s bigger animals. They have moved on to the animals in Af- rica. (Tigers are an exception. They do not live in Africa and are poached in India, Chi- na, Indonesia, and Russia.)

Chinese use of animal parts

Healthy and Wealthy T he market for wildlife in Asia dates back thousands of years. A few hundred years ago, before the age of modern medicine, people in Asia relied on traditional cures. They used plants and animal parts to treat everything from headaches to stomach cramps. Rhino horns were thought to help fevers, for example. Tiger bones were considered a good way to fight arthritis. Modern scientific experiments have shown that these treatments are not effective, but many people still believe in them. In the mid-2000s, a ru- mor began going around in Vietnam saying that rhino horns could cure cancer! The demand for rhinos surged, and poachers went to work. Within a few years, the Javan rhino was wiped out of Vietnam. (A few still live in Indonesia.) The western black rhino from Africa was declared extinct altogether. Rhino horns are made of the same material as

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