Environment

Pangolin Fetus Soup, Other "Cures" Drive Trade

by Barbara McPherson | July 15, 2009 at 10:49 am

202 views | 34 Recommendations | 3 comments

Scaly anteaters, pangolins are flirting with extinction because of the demand for pangolin fetus soup. The scaly anteater reproduces slowly and the increasing demand for the pangolin-fetus soup is driving them there. The folk medicine cure for loss of virility is one of many bizarre "cures" that target animals.

Because of growing demand for pangolin meat and scales, the toothless creature is now being hunted to the edge of extinction, according to a July 14 report by the international conservation group WWF and the wildlife-trade watchdog group TRAFFIC, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN

The scaly anteater is native to parts of Asia and Africa. It has been ruthlessly hunted in China sparking a knockon effect in neighbouring southeast Asian countries.

Last week Indonesian police seized 14 tons of frozen Malayan pangolins—a kind of scaly anteater—bound for China and arrested more than a dozen suspected smugglers, conservationists announced Tuesday.

As many Chinese citizens gain greater prosperity, the demand for pangolin meat, scales and fetuses has kept pace leading to fears that the pangolins will be extirpated in Asia.

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Amy Judd

at 11:31 on July 15th, 2009

Why on earth would someone want to eat that? The name is enough to put me off. We need tougher rules for things like this, no animal should suffer to make some disgusting and totally pointless soup.

Paschen

at 14:53 on July 15th, 2009

We may have to eat the Pangolin eaters in order to stop this non sense.

eastvanray

at 14:29 on July 16th, 2009

Don't they sell Viagra in China? If anything you would think eating "fetus soup" would not produce a state of virility. Chalk it up to the placebo effect I guess.