{"id":301353,"date":"2026-02-25T11:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/301353\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T11:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:15:08","slug":"malaysian-resort-owners-face-huge-fines-jail-over-exotic-pangolin-menu-for-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/301353\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaysian resort owners face huge fines, jail over \u2018exotic\u2019 pangolin menu for tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Malaysian resort offering pangolin soup and meat for an \u201cexquisite\u201d experience for tourists is going to pay dearly after authorities swooped in on their illegal activities.<\/p>\n

In an integrated crackdown dubbed \u201cOps Khazanah\u201d on Monday, Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) officials, together with the police, raided a resort in Semporna district after getting information that the operators were storing and serving the protected species.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the raid, a live pangolin as well as several pots containing cooked pangolin in herbal soup were found,\u201d SWD director Soffian Abu Bakar said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Three individuals were also arrested to facilitate investigations under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, he said.<\/p>\n

As a species listed as totally protected in Sabah, no one is allowed to possess, keep, sell or serve this animal as a meal in any way in the state, he said.<\/p>\n

\"AA resort in Malaysia\u2019s Sabah faces legal action for serving pangolin soup and meat. Photo: The Star<\/p>\n

Those found guilty can be fined between 50,000 ringgit (US$12,840) and 250,000 ringgit and jailed at least one to five years, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Malaysian resort offering pangolin soup and meat for an \u201cexquisite\u201d experience for tourists is going to pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[48040,111,139,69,165392,115040,13998,165393,165394,147,165395,165396,26911,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-301353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-malaysian","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-ops-khazanah","13":"tag-pangolin","14":"tag-sabah","15":"tag-sabah-wildlife-conservation-enactment","16":"tag-sabah-wildlife-department","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-semporna","19":"tag-soffian-abu-bakar","20":"tag-the-star","21":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301353","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=301353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}