It’s time for China to step up and save the Pangolin …
… and all the other trafficked wildlife.
Correctly, we are all taking notice of the Coronavirus epidemic. We’re following the news about how many cases are diagnosed, where those cases are, the effects on international trade and stock markets. These stories are heading every news bulletin and newspaper front page.
What we are hearing a lot less of though is the role of China’s disgusting and despicable wildlife trade in creating this outbreak of human and economic misery.
Scientists have told us that the corona virus emanated from bats – as did many other viruses that have taken human lives.
But they also tell us that the corona virus most probably made its deadly way into humans via the Pangolin.
What is a Pangolin?
The Pangolin is a smallish animal (up to 60 cm high and 12 kg – depending on the species) that is covered by scales. It’s an ant-eater, (mostly) a ground-dweller, and is native to Asia and Africa.
But it’s most distinguishing characteristic is that it’s the World’s Most Trafficked Animal.
Like most other illegally trapped animals, most end up in Asian marketplaces – predominantly China. Their meat is eaten, and the scales used in traditional medicines.
The scales are keratin. That’s the same keratin as your fingernails (and rhino horn).
“In two record-breaking seizures in the space of a week in April 2019, Singapore seized a 14.2-ton shipment and and a 14-ton shipment of pangolin scales—from an estimated 72,000 pangolins—coming from Nigeria.” National Geographic
China has long been condemned for trafficking Pangolins, on humanitarian and ecological grounds – just as it is condemned for poaching ivory, rhino horn etc.
We can now add health grounds to that list.
The Chinese social points system
The Chinese Government is able to control all aspects of its citizens lives. So much so, that it uses a social points system to reward and punish its citizens’ behaviour.
“Good deeds gain points; bad deeds lose them, with perks and hardships attached. If you fall afoul of a pilot system, you cannot get a loan or mortgage, even if your offense is nonfinancial, like quarreling with neighbors. Conversely, nonfinancial “good deeds”—like giving blood—can cause your loan’s interest rate to drop.” Time Magazine
Even face recognition technology is deployed to check up on behavior.
It’s time to stop
It is now time for China to step up and control this despicable trade, using the social points system if necessary. If it’s there to reward and punish social behavior, wouldn’t stopping the wildlife trade be a good use?
The trade in wild animals has supposedly been stopped following the outbreak of coronavirus, and that is certainly a good step. But this has happened before, only for the ban to lapse with time.
The Chinese Communist Party has an entire Department of Publicity (propaganda), and it’s very effective. Surely it’s not beyond the Chinese Government to use this very efficient publicity machine to educate its citizens that;
- keratin doesn’t give you a giant penis, stop you being hysterical, cure malaria or prevent deafness,
- slaughtering and distributing animal meat and parts in open, wet markets is a health hazard, and
- they are affecting millions of people other than themselves by doing so.
It’s time for China to step up and stop the wildlife trade for good.
4T CONSULTANTS | 17 March, 2020
