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SOS Rhino
: In the News :Thieves Steal Horn From Stuffed Rhino |
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Thieves Steal Horn From Stuffed Rhino
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Posted on Thu, Dec. 11, 2003
Associated Press
OSLO, Norway - Thieves stole the nose horn from a stuffed
rhinoceros in a Norwegian museum, leading to fears that the horn was likely
ground into a powder prized as an aphrodisiac in Asia.
Thieves broke into the Bergen Museum on Norway's west coast and used an angle
grinder to remove the horn from the rhino, which had been part of the museum's
collection for more than a century.
The Dec. 2 theft made national news Thursday after it was first reported by
local newspaper Bergensavisen.
Supplies of ground rhinoceros horn are scarce because the giant animals are
a protected species, and Trond Andersen, of the museum, said the likely motive
was to use the horn to make the supposed aphrodisiac.
"That, at least, has been the main use for the horn from this extremely
threatened species," Andersen was quoted as telling Bergensavisen.
The thieves tried to fool museum staff, installing a poorly made copy of the
horn molded in plastic. Museum staff quickly spotted the fake.
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