FAQs about Saving Rhinos
What does Saving Rhinos do?
Saving Rhinos LLC publishes news and information about the illegal rhino horn trade and global rhino conservation issues. Saving Rhinos was launched in 2007.
A brief summary of how we work:
- Professionally curate and publish news, information, and content on a central platform.
- Inform the public by providing insight and contextual relevance regarding issues that do not typically receive in-depth coverage.
- Network behind the scenes to assist verifiable media sources and select NGOs with content-related projects.
- Create educational and public awareness materials (see our Downloads page).
Check out our media mentions page to see how we're helping to get the word out about the rhino crisis.
Does Saving Rhinos use social media?
Yes! Saving Rhinos LLC maintains a social media presence that currently includes our blog Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, as well as Facebook® and Twitter. Our Facebook® page is comprised of an international community of fans, including South Africa, Kenya, the United States, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Nepal, Malaysia - and more!
Saving Rhinos also publishes Project Pangolin.
Meet our Founder and learn more on our About page.
Is Saving Rhinos a charity?
No. Saving Rhinos is organized as a California Limited Liability Company (LLC) and is not a charity or nonprofit, and does not accept donations. We maintain our independence and support our own efforts with rhino t-shirt sales. A portion of the proceeds goes to Partnership for Rhino Conservation (PARC), Nepal. If you enjoy our blog, the posters and the website, help us out with a t-shirt.
Does Saving Rhinos accept donations?
Saving Rhinos LLC does NOT accept donations and is not a charity or nonprofit.
What about the t-shirts?
Saving Rhinos is organized as a California Limited Liability Company (LLC) and is not a charity or nonprofit, and does not accept donations. We maintain our independence, and support our own efforts with rhino t-shirt sales.
We contribute a portion of the proceeds to Partnership for Rhino Conservation (PARC), Nepal, and have been doing so since 2009. The funds help pay for printing educational materials and sponsoring public awareness events that directly impact the people living side-by-side with the greater one-horned rhino in the Chitwan National Park buffer zone.
Please check out the amazing public awareness activities that t-shirt sales have helped support here.
Who is Saving Rhinos?
Saving Rhinos LLC was launched in 2007 by Rhishja Cota-Larson. We launched Project Pangolin in October 2011.
In addition to writing the world's first blog focused on the illegal rhino horn trade, Rhino Horn is NOT Medicine, Rhishja is the Editor of Project Pangolin, contributor for the Jeff Corwin Connect Citizen Blog and the environmental news blog Planetsave. She was also a guest blogger on National Geographic's NatGeo News Watch (Rhino horn: All myth, no medicine).
She has been interviewed on the environmental science news site Mongabay (Belief and butchery: how lies and organized crime are pushing rhinos to extinction), the BBC World Business Report, and on The WildLife with Laurel Neme radio talk show, discussing the illegal trade in rhino horn. You can listen to the podcast by clicking the green arrow on the play bar below:
Rhishja's articles are frequently referenced, and she has been quoted in The New York Times ("Rhino Horns Lure Museum Thieves"), African Business ("Golden Horn Spells Doom for African Rhino") and Consultancy Africa Intelligence (CAI) ("Poaching, mass harvesting of rhino horn and illegal trade"). She has written over 100 articles about endangered species, particularly those that are threatened by illegal trafficking. .
Check out her book, Murder, Myths & Medicine.
(Please note this book contains EXTREMELY graphic images.)
But isn't information about the rhino crisis useless unless it is communicated in China and/or Vietnam (where rhino horn is now marketed as an "anti-cancer" treatment)?
Keep in mind that many Chinese and Vietnamese people who do care about protecting rhinos and other wildlife are living abroad, and are likely to discuss these issues with their families and friends in China/Vietnam. Thus, it is important to spread the word about the rhino crisis across as many countries as possible.
To help wildlife supporters and friends of the rhino in China and Vietnam give a voice to rhinos, our "Rhino Horn is Not Medicine" campaign posters and t-shirts are available in Chinese (Mandarin) and Vietnamese.
Should I contribute directly to rhino conservation organizations?
YES! If our efforts inspire you to donate to a rhino conservation cause, that's great!
There are many rhino conservation organizations that would benefit from your generosity.
How do you know people are finding and using Saving Rhinos' public awareness materials?
In any given month, our websites receive traffic from 50 - 100 countries, adding up to thousands of visits - and our content has been translated into several languages by website users and researchers. Additionally, our public awareness and educational materials have been downloaded and utilized in educational projects all over the world.
Does public awareness really make a difference?
Yes! One of the most encouraging examples is the rhino horn public awareness campaign conducted in Yemen nearly ten years ago by Dr. Esmond Bradley Martin and Lucy Vigne.
Because of the campaign, Yemen's illegal trade in rhino horn has not re-surfaced as a threat to rhinoceros populations. Read the full article: Yemen No Longer Major Destination for illegal Rhino Horn.
Needed: Accurate reporting on rhino poaching by the media. Instead of simply noting that "rhino horn is used in Chinese medicine", we believe a more accurate statement would help educate the public and should be universal:
Although rhino horn has no medicinal effects on humans, superstitions about rhino horn persist in China and Southeast Asia - particularly Vietnam - where rhino horn is unfortunately believed to be a "remedy" for a wide variety of ailments, from a fever to cancer. The cultural myths surrounding rhino horn are why rhinos are slaughtered illegally - and why wild rhino populations in Africa and Asia are at risk of extinction.
We need to teach people to stop thinking of rhino horn as a valuable commodity and start focusing on the facts. Rhino horn has no medicinal properties, no curative benefits, and no magical powers.
We believe that social media and content sharing campaigns are helping to accomplish this.
Learn more at Busting the Rhino Horn Myth with Science.
Do people from China - or other places where rhino horn is sold as medicine - visit the Saving Rhinos website?
Yes, they do. And the results are encouraging: Our visitors from China and Vietnam are mostly from schools and universities - and usually arrive at our website looking for information about how to help rhinos and how to save rhinos from extinction.
Keep in mind that many Chinese and Vietnamese people who do care about protecting rhinos and other wildlife are living abroad, and are likely to discuss these issues with their families and friends in China/Vietnam. It's important to spread the word about the rhino crisis across as many countries as possible.
To help wildlife supporters and friends of the rhino in China and Vietnam give a voice to rhinos, our "Rhino Horn is Not Medicine" campaign posters and t-shirts are available in Chinese (Mandarin) and Vietnamese.
