Rhino horns for sale in San Francisco's Chinatown despite crackdown

Trade in bear bile and other illicit animal products continues as local shopkeepers point to tradition: 'Why are we punished for our culture?'

California legislators aiming to pass more stringent regulations on the sale and dissemination of ivory and rhinoceros horns received a boost last Friday when a San Francisco man pleaded guilty to selling an undercover federal agent two black rhinoceros horns for $55,000. The art dealer Lumsden Quan and Mill Valley man Edward Levine will face sentencing in December.

But despite this guilty plea and the attempt at a crackdown, rhino horns and other illicit animal products remain on sale in San Francisco's Chinatown.