Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pangolins
Pangolins are small, nocturnal mammals, also known as scaly anteaters. Populations throughout tropical Asia have been decimated to meet demand for Chinese medicine ingredients, like pangolin scales and even unborn fetuses. Many people in the region also consider pangolin meat as a delicacy.
According to a report by WWF and other conservation groups, pangolins are being hunted to the edge of extinction. One of the main causes is the growing demand for pangolin meat and scales, which are believed to have medical properties. According to Asian traditional medicine, pangolin fetus-soup could increase a man's virility.
A rare pangolin fetus floats in soup in Indonesia in 2008. Some practitioners of Asian traditional medicine believe pangolin-fetus soup increases a man's virility.
But because pangolin mothers typically produce just one pup per litter, the soup comes laced with a deadly irony. Whatever the soup purportedly does for individual humans, its popularity could be helping to squelch the reproductiveness of an entire species.
Because of growing demand for pangolin meat and scales, the toothless creature is being hunted to the edge of extinction, according to a report by the international conservation group WWF and the wildlife-trade watchdog group TRAFFIC, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Native to the Indian subcontinent, Asia, and Africa, the pangolin, or scaly anteater, is especially coveted in China, where it has been overhunted, WWF says. China's reduced supply fuels pangolin hunting in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, says the report, which was funded in part by the National Geographic Society's Conservation Trust.
Source: National Geographic
In order to maximize profits, wildlife traffickers in Vietnam use brutal techniques to increase the weight of pangolins.A little-known horror of the illegal pangolin trade is that these defenseless mammals are often forced to endure painful “fattening procedures”.
According to a translated account by Education for Nature-Vietnam, the pangolin is restrained while a tube is inserted down the throat, so that a starchy concoction can be pumped into the helpless animal’s stomach.
Pangolins were taken from the cages and held still by a strong male in the group. A spout was put down the pangolins throat, which was attached to a hand-made pump. The procedure must be done carefully and skillfully because if the spout is inserted incorrectly, into the windpipe for example, the starch could kill the pangolin instantly. Another person pumped the starch slowly through the spout until the stomach was full.
A pangolin’s weight is said to increase by 2 – 5 kg after undergoing the “procedure”.
However, force feeding isn’t the only way that traffickers torture their victims.
Research published by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia notes that pangolins are also “injected” with liquids.
Pangolins in Viet Nam are sold according to weight. The health of live pangolins in the trade is further compromised by a cruel practice designed to increase the live weight of pangolins for sale. Corn flower mixed with water or other liquids are often force fed or injected under the skin of pangolins.
Tragically, tens of thousands of pangolins are killed on a yearly basis to satisfy an insatiable illegal market for pangolin scales and flesh — both of which are consumed in China for purported “health benefits”.
Source: Project Pangolin
According to a translated account by Education for Nature-Vietnam, the pangolin is restrained while a tube is inserted down the throat, so that a starchy concoction can be pumped into the helpless animal’s stomach.
Pangolins were taken from the cages and held still by a strong male in the group. A spout was put down the pangolins throat, which was attached to a hand-made pump. The procedure must be done carefully and skillfully because if the spout is inserted incorrectly, into the windpipe for example, the starch could kill the pangolin instantly. Another person pumped the starch slowly through the spout until the stomach was full.
A pangolin’s weight is said to increase by 2 – 5 kg after undergoing the “procedure”.
However, force feeding isn’t the only way that traffickers torture their victims.
Research published by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia notes that pangolins are also “injected” with liquids.
Pangolins in Viet Nam are sold according to weight. The health of live pangolins in the trade is further compromised by a cruel practice designed to increase the live weight of pangolins for sale. Corn flower mixed with water or other liquids are often force fed or injected under the skin of pangolins.
Tragically, tens of thousands of pangolins are killed on a yearly basis to satisfy an insatiable illegal market for pangolin scales and flesh — both of which are consumed in China for purported “health benefits”.
Source: Project Pangolin
In traditional Chinese medicine, pangolin scales are associated with the liver and stomach meridians, and are considered to have salty and slightly cold properties. The scales of the pangolin are used in conjunction with herbs to treat a host of conditions, including masses in the abdomen, amenorrhea, rheumatism, arthralgia, postpartum galactostasis, skin and external diseases, and scrofula (tuberculosis of lymph nodes, especially in the neck). Pangolin scales are also used to invigorate the blood and promote menstruation, promote lactation, reduce swelling and dispel pus.
Pangolin scales are harvested from the pangolin through a process that involves boiling and parching.
Source
Pangolin scales are harvested from the pangolin through a process that involves boiling and parching.
Source
Picture source: National Geographic