Confiscated pangolins returned to the wild!

Treatment and rehabilitation a success!

After one week of treatment and rehabilitation we have returned 48 pangolins back to the wild last night, on several secret locations. The WFFT/LWRC wildlife rescue team joined Lao government law enforcement officials on a mission to return the freedom to these magnificent animals.

One week ago Lao forestry officials and police arrested a Thai man with 81 pangolins that were smuggled from Thailand into Laos. Most of the pangolins were in bad shape; dehydrated, hungry, stressed and overall weak. Our team offered to care for the poor animals and fought for days to rescue as many as possible. Two days ago we found 48 of the pangolins strong enough to be released back into the wild, with 17 deceased.

Pangolins are very hard to care for and in most cases less than 20% survive this kind of an ordeal. It is believed that this “shipment” of pangolins originated from Sumatra Indonesia, and was destined for China, where these highly endangered wild animals would be eaten by the rich and corrupted, while their scales would be used as traditional Chinese medicine.

Laos and Thailand are major gateways for the illegal wildlife trade between South-east Asia and Africa with China and Vietnam. WFFT is currently discussing ways to assist more often with confiscations of wildlife with authorities in Laos in the future.

You can support our work in Thailand and Laos by donating towards our mobile wildlife rescue teams.