How Does Dehorning Work? Part 3
The animal's eyes are covered with a cloth and ears plugged with cotton to protect them from the particles that scatter as the horn is sawn off. South African government officals are on site to place tracking microchips into the horns as soon as they are removed. The rhino's horn is made of keratin, just like your fingernails, and grows back in about two years.
How Does Dehorning Work? (Click any photo for details.)
From a helicopter, a veterinarian riding in a helicopter shoots the rhino with a tranquilizer dart.
The now sedated rhino is injected with an anesthetic by a second veterinarian.
The animal's eyes are covered with a cloth and ears plugged with cotton to protect them from the flying chips of horn as the horn is sawn off.
The cut edges are smoothed with a grinder. The removal is not painful, just as clipping your fingernails is not painful.
The finished product. Now the rhino has little value to the poachers (or killers and mutilators).
The rhino is injected with a drug that reverses the effect of the anesthetic. In a few minutes, the animal rises and walks away. The whole process takes about 10-15 minutes per rhino.