Rhino poaching for horn, driven by demand in Asian traditional medicine markets, causes acute suffering to individual animals and threatens entire populations.
Rhino poaching causes severe suffering. Illegally immobilised rhinos may be wrongly dosed, causing death from respiratory failure. Face hacking - removing horn from live or recently dead animals with axes - is documented. Animals that survive partial dehorning face altered social dynamics. Orphaned calves after mother poaching face starvation and psychological distress. Poaching in protected areas causes chronic stress in rhino populations even when individual animals are not targeted, as animals learn to associate human presence with threat.