A Chinese woman nicknamed the “Pangolin Princess,” who cooked various species of endangered animals and posted them on her social media, has been detained by police and could reportedly face 10 years in jail.
The “pangolin princess” claims she cooked and ate different wildlife including pangolin, snake, and swan and then shared her experience online. Among the dishes in her photos are “pangolin-blood fried rice” and pangolin soup.
The woman, identified by authorities only as “Ms. Lin”, wrote about her wildlife feasts on a Chinese equivalent of Twitter in 2011 and 2012. But her creative cuisine was overlooked by authorities until now.
In one of her posts she reportedly wrote: “I forced myself to drink two bowls while praying for them (the animals) in my heart. It’s indeed very nutritious because my nose just bled.’
The other picture Lin posted was a dish of ‘fried rice cooked with pangolin blood’. She described it as “very special”.
The meat of a pangolin is allegedly considered a delicacy by some in China and eating it is a sign of wealth, however its trade or consumption has been banned in in China for a decade.
Pangolin is a protected animal in China along with several other wild animals that she also consumed. Now the woman may face criminal liability with up to 10 years in prison.
The Shenzhen police claimed that they will “harshly crack down against and investigate thoroughly any criminal and law-breaking behavior relating to wildlife.”
