In what appear to be China ’s biggest - ever anteater smuggling case , customs duty functionary seized 3.1 tons of pangolin scales worth more than $ 2 million on the black market place .
Back in 2015,authorities in China busted a pangolin smuggling ring , confiscating 2,674 carcase of the threaten species . But this latest seizure , in which pangolin scales were integrate in with a container of wood Cartesian product ship in from Nigeria , is count on to have involved around 7,500 pangolins . It ’s the biggest ictus of its kind , and a distressful sign that Chinese officials are n’t doing enough to prevent the illegal trafficking of these vulnerable animals .
The pangolin , a scaley mammal that resembles an globe artichoke , isthe most trafficked animal on Earth , and prize for its use in traditional medicine . Fact is , scaly anteater plate are made from keratin , which is essentially the same substance that take in up fingernail . Its curative value is extremely questioned , and there ’s no science to back such call .
grocery value for pangolin parts is about 5,000 yuan ( $ 700 ) per kilo , or $ 1540 per pound ( pangolins are also regard a delicacy , so its flesh is also in demand ) . The recent haul was valued at about $ 2 million . Shanghai custom arrested three individuals suspect of smuggling scales to Asia from Africa since 2015 .
https://gizmodo.com/pagolins-earth-s-most-beautiful-and-trafficked-creatur-1787292903
The trading of scaly anteater division is illegal in China ( and pretty much everywhere else ) , and the animal is heel as a protected species . critic complain that law enforcement stay weak , and that authorities , both in and out of China , are n’t doing enough to break up smuggling rings .
[ AFP ]
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