Hunters, game ranchers and traditional healers want to establish a new trading scheme for wild animal waste products and to test the market at a pilot sale in KwaZulu-Natal this month. Thousands of privately owned game animals from several species are hunted or slaughtered commercially for trophies, skins or meat every year - but the remnant body parts are often discarded because they have little commercial value to hunters. However, some of these unused body parts - including bones, hooves, horns, skins, fats and oils - are in high demand by traditional healers in KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere, and a new, regulated market could help to meet this demand and also relieve pressure on wild species that are hunted or trapped illegally for traditional medicine. A study commissioned by the department of trade & industry suggests that more than 26-million South Africans use traditional medicine, mostly derived from wild plants and some animals. The study was done in 2007 and showed then that...
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