[nudephil (OP)]

Here's a question we got from listener John:

I want to know, if enough people in the world donated their finger and toenail clippings, would enough keratin be produced to satisfy the demand, and thus stop poaching of wild animals in Africa?

What do you think?

[Hayseed]

I think your suggestion is a mis-understanding of the problem.    I offer this with the assumption that superstition is the same all over the world.  I have no experience with Asian culture.

The healing properties of most potions are from where they come, not what the molecular structure is.

These potions where made and believed in long before chemical analysis.

It's the very fact that the keratin came from a living unique animal that makes it special.

Some believe a placebo should be the first drug prescribed.  Faith has been proven to work since the beginning of medicine. Many a shaman have lived off of this fact.

[alancalverd]

The whole point of rhino horn is that it is becoming extinct. It is well known that its supposed ability to confer virility is not merely untrue but the opposite of truth, and it is only used by failed old men who can't get an erection except by spending money (and won't admit that they have wasted both) but for some reason the very rich like to associate with such losers.

I have suggested breeding rhinos in captivity (they do pretty well in the east of England and probably in the drier parts of Scotland), harvesting their horns, and replacing them with plastic prostheses. The profit from the legal sale of this rubbish can then be used to buy decent helicopters and radar, to kill poachers. Or maybe to place a bounty on the heads of poachers and anyone caught buying or selling wild rhinosceros products. I can't think of a use for the bodies of poachers.   

[evan_au]

We could get more keratin by collecting floor sweepings from hairdressers...
- But I doubt it would convince the true believers

Skeptoid looks at its traditional role in Chinese medicine (not much). He suggests that the rush on rhino horn started after the year 2000, when a Vietnamese politician claimed to have been cured of cancer.

Read: https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4562

[nudephil (OP)]

Thanks all - I agree with your skepticism. We answered this question on our "Crystal Clear about Glass" show with a couple conservation experts. You can find it there or on the Question of the Week feed as per.