It just doesn’t get much cuter than this!
This cute little Cape pangolin named Chaminuka (“Champ” for short) was recently rescued by the Tikki Hywood Trust in Zimababwe.
Nearly a year after being busted, two men in Malaysia have been convicted of illegally possessing pangolins and it seems having an ‘elderly mother’ to take care of may have won them both a more lenient sentencing.
Nepalese police arrested two men found smuggling seven kilograms of pangolin scales in Nepal only days after Palawan officials apprehended three Chinese nationals running an illicit pangolin trade operation out of their ‘junk shop’ front business.
A 32 year-old man has been arrested by Thai Customs officials, after he was found driving a vehicle loaded with 180 pangolins — at least the fourth such bust of 2012 globally.
Good news: As a result of our recent story about pangolin products being sold on China’s top eCommerce website, Alibaba, we were contacted by a representative of the company who informed us that the pangolin pages have now been removed from the site.
A Chinese national identified as Yefan Huang has been arrested by authorities in Palawan, Philippines. Huang is believed to be responsible for slaughtering hundreds of pangolins (scaly anteaters) in order to profit from the thriving illegal trade in this species.
01/13/2012: Check out the update on this story here.
As of this writing, the above could be found here: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/499471942/Pangolin_Scales.html
A search for the term “pangolin” on a major eCommerce website yields some shocking and appalling results: The endangered animals’ flesh and scales are openly listed for sale.
And if that’s not shocking enough, who owns the website may be even more disturbing. Read more