Pangolins were imprisoned long before their conviction in the court of public opinion. Though we now know them as the source of the novel coronavirus, their claim to fame was once their status as the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal. Their scales make them look like the lovechild of an anteater and a pinecone; the scale of their exploitation tramples whatever delight one might take from their strange appearance.
Every five minutes, a pangolin is taken from the wild. This means that before you reach the end of this story, some helpless pangolin will be kidnapped for a life of abject misery ending in slaughter. The motivations for this ongoing crime against nature could not be more trivial: soup and pseudoscience. The meat of these animals is consumed as a luxury item, enjoyed by wealthy individuals at high-class restaurants. The scales — which have all the healing properties of toenail clippings — are said to treat cancer and help women lactate. For these reasons, meaningless and misled, humans have tormented hundreds of thousands of pangolins and brought these species to the verge of extinction.
The exploitation of pangolins forces them into close contact with humans. Trappers, transporters, and vendors alike handle this animal after their removal…