Nearly three tonnes of pangolin scales seized in Thailand

[webfact]

Nearly three tonnes of pangolin scales seized in Thailand

 

A customs officer holds up pangolin scales during a news conference at the customs department in Bangkok, Thailand, February 2, 2017. Thai customs officials have seized 2.9 tons of pangolin scales worth 29 million Thai baht ($826,000) that were smuggled into Thailand from Congo and destined for Laos, authorities said on Thursday. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK Feb 3 (Reuters) - Thai authorities on Thursday displayed to journalists nearly 3 tonnes of scales from pangolins, the world's most poached animal, seized in anti-smuggling operations since December.

 

The scales, worth more than $800,000, were shipped from Africa and confiscated by police, customs and wildlife officials at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport.

 

Thai customs chief Kulit Sombatsiri told reporters that an estimated 6,000 pangolins were killed to produce almost 3 tonnes of scales, which are used in traditional medicines in Asia.

 

A ban on global trade of pangolins took effect in January after tougher international protection was agreed last September for the eight species of the mammal, which curls up in a ball when threatened by predators.

 

Like other illicit wildlife commodity pipelines, such as elephant ivory and rhino horn, Africa is the main source of pangolin supply, while the demand comes from Asia.

 

The nocturnal animals, also called scaly anteaters because of their diet, are increasingly being targeted for their meat and scales, the World Wildlife Fund says on its website, with their status ranging from vulnerable to critically endangered.

 

Pangolins are in high demand in countries like China and Vietnam, it added, with their meat considered a delicacy and their scales used in folk remedies for ailments such as asthma, rheumatism and arthritis.

 

Seizures represent as little as a tenth of the actual volume of pangolins in illegal wildlife trade, the Fund said. (Reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-03

[leeneeds]

Buy and sell quackery nonsense,

 

The man who asks a question, is a fool 

for a minute, 

The man who does not ask,

is a fool for life, 

 

Confucius 479 bc

[Wilsonandson]

What a strange diet the Chinese have. I saw somewhere that they eat horse penis as well. Why can't they eat normal food like everyone else. Shark fin soup, rhino tusks, tiger claws, bears gall badders, stop eating endangered animals, please!

[CelticBhoy]

11 minutes ago, Wilsonandson said:

What a strange diet the Chinese have. I saw somewhere that they eat horse penis as well. Why can't they eat normal food like everyone else. Shark fin soup, rhino tusks, tiger claws, bears gall badders, stop eating endangered animals, please!

 

Exactly  . . . . what's wrong with sticking to haggis  . . . 

[jaywalker]

58 minutes ago, Wilsonandson said:

What a strange diet the Chinese have. I saw somewhere that they eat horse penis as well. Why can't they eat normal food like everyone else. Shark fin soup, rhino tusks, tiger claws, bears gall badders, stop eating endangered animals, please!

I once ordered what looked like kimchi (cabbage salad) in Taipei.

 

It was a platter of pickled duck feet. Ooooh! Yummy! NOT!

[UPDEHSOI]

2 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

What a strange diet the Chinese have. I saw somewhere that they eat horse penis as well. Why can't they eat normal food like everyone else. Shark fin soup, rhino tusks, tiger claws, bears gall badders, stop eating endangered animals, please!

Well, speaking of strange diets, over the years here I have eaten bull penis salad, one time. It was an important function and "they" wanted to impress me. I have also eaten dog meat (black dog only ), cicadas, scorpions, silkworms, different types of roaches and on a few occasions, raw monkey brains soaked in whiskey, different types of snake meat, crickets and who knows how many types of insects that were put on my plate...or banana leaf. However, none of these are on the endangered list....I think...maybe the monkeys.

[UPDEHSOI]

1 hour ago, jaywalker said:

I once ordered what looked like kimchi (cabbage salad) in Taipei.

 

It was a platter of pickled duck feet. Ooooh! Yummy! NOT!

Don't feel bad. Duck and chicken feet contain many vitamins. (cooked of course ) Won't take the place of a good ole porterhouse steak though. IMHO of course.

[Prbkk]

5 minutes ago, UPDEHSOI said:

Well, speaking of strange diets, over the years here I have eaten bull penis salad, one time. It was an important function and "they" wanted to impress me. I have also eaten dog meat (black dog only ), cicadas, scorpions, silkworms, different types of roaches and on a few occasions, raw monkey brains soaked in whiskey, different types of snake meat, crickets and who knows how many types of insects that were put on my plate...or banana leaf. However, none of these are on the endangered list....I think...maybe the monkeys.

Dreadful. I learnt a long time ago, as I'm sure you did, that these banquets have nothing whatsoever to do with YOU but rather everything to do with the preferences/priorities of the host, with a bit of "expensive to impress" thrown in. That said , with some upfront diplomacy it is relatively easy to make it clear in advance that plain food is appreciated and everyone is relatively happy.

[webfact]

Huge cache of pangolin scales seized

 

 

BANGKOK: -- Pangolin scales weighed 2.9 tons and smuggled out of Central Africa with end destination in both Vietnam and China were confiscated in Thailand.

 

Pangolin meats and scales are in great demand in both countries because their meat is considered a delicacy and some believe that pangolin scales have medicinal qualities.

 

According to the disclosure of the Customs Department at yesterday’s press conference taken by both the Royal Thai Police and the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, they have seized 2.9 tons of pangolin scales worth 100 million baht in separate seizures.

 

They said the first shipment of 1,700 kilograms of pangolin scales were found hidden in 34 packages shipped on Flight TK064 from Kinshasa, the Democratic of the Congo, to Laos via Turkey and Thailand on December 4 last year.

 

The second shipment of 24 packages containing 1,200 kilograms of pangolin scales, was found on December 23.

Director-general of the Customs Department Mr Kulit Sombatsiri said the department has seized 35 million baht worth of 3.4 tonnes of pangolin scales shipped from Africa since 2012. Most of the shipments were from Nigeria to Laos through Turkey and Thailand.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/huge-cache-pangolin-scales-seized/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-02-03

[jollyhangmon]

1 hour ago, Prbkk said:

Dreadful. I learnt a long time ago, as I'm sure you did, that these banquets have nothing whatsoever to do with YOU but rather everything to do with the preferences/priorities of the host, with a bit of "expensive to impress" thrown in. That said , with some upfront diplomacy it is relatively easy to make it clear in advance that plain food is appreciated and everyone is relatively happy.

 Yep, they fooled me only once with dog meat. While i have no problem with common insects - don't exactly seek them out either tough - that certainly taught me to find out the exact origin of whatever i'm offered they call 'delicious/rare food' if not clearly identifiable.

 

Imagine how well checked (as in' veterinary') this mainly illegal sh*t has to be!

Yummy raw monkey-brains ... well, they can shove it where the sun rarely shines - would give them more brains back there then than in their heads obviously ... 

[elgordo38]

4 hours ago, Wilsonandson said:

What a strange diet the Chinese have. I saw somewhere that they eat horse penis as well. Why can't they eat normal food like everyone else. Shark fin soup, rhino tusks, tiger claws, bears gall badders, stop eating endangered animals, please!

As their affluence increases so does their demand for exotic food. Mores the shame. With all their increase in their standard of living they are still living in the dark ages when it comes to all this erotic inducement clap trap. Economic progress does not always include ecological thinking. 

[fvw53]

I am stunned there are still so many pangolins alive and yet consumed

[wakeupplease]

4 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

As their affluence increases so does their demand for exotic food. Mores the shame. With all their increase in their standard of living they are still living in the dark ages when it comes to all this erotic inducement clap trap. Economic progress does not always include ecological thinking. 

Exotic Food

 

What on earth some of them have for brains I do not know, if I see a fish on a plate I remove myself from the location.

Just serve them a plate of bull>>it, call it Hote da la bull and they would eat it if you told them it gave them brain power

 

Cheese on toast you can.t go wrong there

[RigPig]

8 hours ago, UPDEHSOI said:

Well, speaking of strange diets, over the years here I have eaten bull penis salad, one time. It was an important function and "they" wanted to impress me. I have also eaten dog meat (black dog only ), cicadas, scorpions, silkworms, different types of roaches and on a few occasions, raw monkey brains soaked in whiskey, different types of snake meat, crickets and who knows how many types of insects that were put on my plate...or banana leaf. However, none of these are on the endangered list....I think...maybe the monkeys.

And were you with "Bear Grills" or just hungry and too far from REAL food?

[hotchilli]

Seized at Bkk is good news for Thai customs, and obviously put a dent in someone's pocket.

But it begs the question, why not follow the consignment & catch the receivers as-well?

[UPDEHSOI]

11 hours ago, jollyhangmon said:

 Yep, they fooled me only once with dog meat. While i have no problem with common insects - don't exactly seek them out either tough - that certainly taught me to find out the exact origin of whatever i'm offered they call 'delicious/rare food' if not clearly identifiable.

 

Imagine how well checked (as in' veterinary') this mainly illegal sh*t has to be!

Yummy raw monkey-brains ... well, they can shove it where the sun rarely shines - would give them more brains back there then than in their heads obviously ... 

Yep, know what you mean. However, I was never "fooled" by the various foods. I knew exactly ( well, almost ) what I was eating. On one occasion, the father of a good friend of mine in a small village some miles east of Nan had his small dog killed by a bunch of drunken yahoos driving a truck. He spent quite some time crying and holding his little mutt in his arms. That afternoon he skinned his dog and put the hide some place. He was going to do something with it, but I never did find out what. He then cooked his dog over an open fire. His son and I ( son's girlfriend would not touch it ) ate part of the dog to uh, umm, not sure why...to sympathize with the old man maybe?? Ate monkey brains in a small village north of Mae Hon Sung. It's a delicacy in that area, and not an everyday food. Take the monkey, slice the head off, one pass will do it. Quickly turn the head upside down before the blood and brains have a chance to spill out, pour in the whiskey...doesn't matter what type, let it marinate for some hours...and then enjoy. It takes a bit of doing to "enjoy".

[UPDEHSOI]

6 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

Exotic Food

 

What on earth some of them have for brains I do not know, if I see a fish on a plate I remove myself from the location.

Just serve them a plate of bull>>it, call it Hote da la bull and they would eat it if you told them it gave them brain power

 

Cheese on toast you can.t go wrong there

Maybe watch it a bit there mate. Not all cheese is healthy. And the acrylamide  and other chemicals in toast, especially burnt toast have been linked to a cause of cancer.

[UPDEHSOI]

16 hours ago, CelticBhoy said:

 

Exactly  . . . . what's wrong with sticking to haggis  . . . 

Ooooo, that's enough to turn a stomach.

[Prbkk]

Many of the POWs from Changi/Burma railway had an unpleasant but essential introduction to exotic foods: they were forced to eat any kind of protein they could find, as there was little or none in the 'meals' provided by their captors. Consequently they were eating rats, lizards, geckos, cockroaches, insects...everything and anything. At the same time they enjoyed endless discussions and fantasies about all the rich food they would have when the war was over ...but when it happened they found their preference was for plain and simple: bread and butter, cheese on toast and the like ( ref: Stan Arneil, One Man's War).

[UPDEHSOI]

6 hours ago, RigPig said:

And were you with "Bear Grills" or just hungry and too far from REAL food?

Yeah RIGHT!! Bear Grylls a bit too exciting for me nowadays. maybe thirty five or so years ago. Naw, in the past twenty five years or so I have been in and out of more villages in Thailand than I can remember. And...when in Rome........

[UPDEHSOI]

12 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

As their affluence increases so does their demand for exotic food. Mores the shame. With all their increase in their standard of living they are still living in the dark ages when it comes to all this erotic inducement clap trap. Economic progress does not always include ecological thinking. 

Quite agree. Ever been to China and/or Japan?

[UPDEHSOI]

5 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Seized at Bkk is good news for Thai customs, and obviously put a dent in someone's pocket.

But it begs the question, why not follow the consignment & catch the receivers as-well?

Right on! And this might be a good question to ask in the situation of many other illegal goodies entering the country...especially drugs.

[elgordo38]

1 hour ago, UPDEHSOI said:

Quite agree. Ever been to China and/or Japan?

No sadly I have not and doubt if I will be. All that could change in a blink of a eye if I should win the lottery no not in Thailand. I would buy a motorized chair with 4 forward speeds and tally ho and away I go. Time for my Geritol. 

[jaywalker]

2 hours ago, Prbkk said:

Many of the POWs from Changi/Burma railway had an unpleasant but essential introduction to exotic foods: they were forced to eat any kind of protein they could find, as there was little or none in the 'meals' provided by their captors. Consequently they were eating rats, lizards, geckos, cockroaches, insects...everything and anything. At the same time they enjoyed endless discussions and fantasies about all the rich food they would have when the war was over ...but when it happened they found their preference was for plain and simple: bread and butter, cheese on toast and the like ( ref: Stan Arneil, One Man's War).

My father-in-law cooked up some rice field rats one evening in Surin.

I stuck to eating fish that night.

 

First time I ever grilled a filet mignon & some baked potatoes my wife was in LOVE even more with me.

 

She can put away some lasagna & spaghetti as well. Not sure where she puts it, as she's 45kg (99 lbs) & 1.9 meters (4' 11") tall.

 

She'd never had any of the above before she met me.

[jollyhangmon]

10 hours ago, UPDEHSOI said:

Yep, know what you mean. However, I was never "fooled" by the various foods. I knew exactly ( well, almost ) what I was eating. On one occasion, the father of a good friend of mine in a small village some miles east of Nan had his small dog killed by a bunch of drunken yahoos driving a truck. He spent quite some time crying and holding his little mutt in his arms. That afternoon he skinned his dog and put the hide some place. He was going to do something with it, but I never did find out what. He then cooked his dog over an open fire. His son and I ( son's girlfriend would not touch it ) ate part of the dog to uh, umm, not sure why...to sympathize with the old man maybe?? Ate monkey brains in a small village north of Mae Hon Sung. It's a delicacy in that area, and not an everyday food. Take the monkey, slice the head off, one pass will do it. Quickly turn the head upside down before the blood and brains have a chance to spill out, pour in the whiskey...doesn't matter what type, let it marinate for some hours...and then enjoy. It takes a bit of doing to "enjoy".

Well, my major concern would be safety where uncooked meat of any kind is concerned.
Might as well be some sort of paranoia but i'm not sure that whiskey does much good in that aspect, i think minimum 60% proof upwards is needed for proper 'disinfection' (for lack of better wording).

 

I've seen nasty looking embedded measles/larvae of tapeworms in muscle-meat of just shot foxes and boars back home myself, same thing occurs in cattle and lots of other animals ... nobody wants any of that nesting inside oneself really.

Now, i've no problem to hunt and gut game myself, have repeatedly eaten and relished self-hunted wild pig here up north but 'rare' (also with steak) rarely happens for me, least of all here in TH. The rule would be minimum 70 degree C over several minutes of cooking i believe ... 

 

As for the monkeys, well yes, i certainly can relate to that a fair bit of 'doing' would be necessary for us to enjoy the feast ;-), brrr, it really ain't my cup of tea personally ... i just would't consider it as 'game' in the first place is what i'm saying ...