KOTA KINABALU \u2013 A resort offering pangolin soup and meat as an \u201cexquisite\u201d experience for tourists faces heavy penalties after the authorities swooped in on its illegal activities.<\/p>\n
In an integrated crackdown dubbed Ops Khazanah on Feb 23, Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) officials, together with police, raided a resort in the Semporna district after receiving information that the operators kept pangolins and listed them on its menu.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the raid, a live pangolin and several pots containing cooked pangolin in herbal soup were found,\u201d SWD director Soffian Abu Bakar said in a statement on Feb 24.<\/p>\n
Three people were arrested under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, he said.<\/p>\n
He said that as the pangolin is a species protected in Sabah, no one is allowed to possess, keep or sell the animal or serve it as food.<\/p>\n
Those found guilty can be fined between RM50,000 (S$16,200) and RM250,000 and jailed for up to five years, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are taking this matter, as well as any incidents of preparing protected species as exotic meals for tourists, very seriously and would take strict actions against perpetrators,\u201d said Mr Soffian.<\/p>\n
He said such irresponsible actions are not only illegal but also affect environmental protection initiatives and tarnish Sabah\u2019s image as a responsible, sustainable nature tourism destination.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are stepping up patrols and enforcement to protect our wildlife in Sabah,\u201d he added. THE STAR\/ASIA NEWS NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KOTA KINABALU \u2013 A resort offering pangolin soup and meat as an \u201cexquisite\u201d experience for tourists faces heavy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-301311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}