The endangered rhino continues to be hunted and killed for its horn which is worth more than gold in Asian countries for its supposed medicinal properties.

Africa's rhino population has dwindled dramatically since the 1970s -- from 65,000 to 18,000 -- due to the outrageous profits poor African farmers and herdsmen can earn from the horns. According to Treehugger, "in 1990, the two horns from a single black rhino brought as much as $50,000."

The problem has become so widespread that one preservationist has proposed injecting poisoning rhino's horns so that anyone who ate foodstuffs made with horn ingredient would die. "We need to try poisoning the horns with something like cyanide so when someone uses it for medicine they will die,'' proposes Ed Hern, owner of the Lion and Rhino Park outside of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Hern knows his desperate idea would "get [him] into a lot of trouble." But nothing short less than desperate measures is going to save the rhino.