God entrusts us with this earth and wants us to take care of all the creatures on it. Unfortunately, we haven’t done the best job caring for animals.  Now, three individuals in Zimbia were caught trying to smuggle a rare animal out of the country that they were planning to sell on the black market. The animals that they were trying to smuggle were a mother and baby pangolin.

Now, the three alleged criminals are behind bars.

It all happened on June 12 when Zambian authorities found and identified the horrified animals after hunting down the smugglers for an entire week. When their rescuers finally located the group, the mother and baby pangolin were found hidden away in a wooden box. The animals were so afraid that when authorities opened the box, the two pangolins were found clinging to each other in a defensive posture. “From the poor condition of the mother and baby, it is thought that they had been in captivity for over two weeks,” Vicky Flynn, who works for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, said.

Now, the pangolins are being rehabilitated by the GRI Wildlife Crime Prevention Project. The animals were traumatized after this event and were weakened substantially during their time trapped in the tiny wooden box. “They seem to be eating, which is a great sign,” Annekim Geerdes of the GRI Wildlife Vet Program, said. “They will be given a chance to rest and eat well again.”

So, why would the smugglers try to do this? Well, recently pangolins have become the most widely traded wild mammal on the planet. Between the years 2011 and 2013 alone, more than 233,980 pangolins were killed so that people in Asia could feed on their meat and collect their scales for various purposes. Luckily, though, these two pangolins were spared and have a second chance at life!

[Source/AWM]

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