Stop Eating Pangolins

What happens when the last pangolin is gone? Then what are you going to eat?  Give it up, and teach poachers to be smart.  Have them take up jungle survival, teach tourists how to survive in the wild, and show them the creatures alive! This, you can pass on to your children, and their children's children, and so on.

Balin, the rescued baby pangolin, covered in ants.

When you eat these creatures, or sell them to people who eat them, forests, and people on the other side of the world suffer. Is that something you want your children to know, that you ate or sold the last pangolin? That your appetite created a  non sustainable livelihood. Without the pangolin, an overabundance of ants and termites will over run the forests, which are already disappearing from logging and development. They will be gone soon, very soon and then what you substitute it with, that also has an end and tragic consequence.

Those of you who are eating pangolins, also known as the scaly anteater, or if you know someone who eats them, please tell them they are eating a creature very important to the environment. The scales do not have any medicinal value and there are so many better and effective plant alternatives.

Last week alone, 8,000 pangolins were found killed and processed. The pangolin is a gentle creature, it doesn't even have any teeth. Adult pangolins eat at least 70 million pests like ants and termites every year. This is not a good time in the world to be doing this, the world is in peril, all of us are in peril and we are doing it to ourselves.

We need to educate the end consumers as to what they are doing to the planet for the sake of their tastebuds. We need to re-educate the poachers and teach them a sustainable way to make a living. People fly from all over the world to see live Tarsiers in Cebu, and the whale shark in Donsol. Why can't we retrain poachers to be forest guides and jungle survival teachers, and people can pay to see live animals instead. It may not make as much in the beginning, but it will be a more lasting job.

Palawan people should be proud of the pangolin and not take it for granted. A friend ran into two chaps recently, who boasted of eating them, saying there are so many of them....this will not be true very soon. Please tell people of the plight of the pangolin.

Here is a video I made to teach people the value of the pangolin. Please take a moment to watch it. I haven't really done one before, but for the pangolin, I try. Please feel free to share it.