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While smuggling hundreds of a protected endangered species, the pangolin. What the fuck were these guys doing, trying out to be villains in Captain Planet?

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/05/20135410157992462.html

This is a pangolin, cute little buggers being hunted to extinction because they're a delicacy and their meat is thought to have (Surprise, surprise) medicinal qualities in some parts of China.

Goddamn Chinese medicine...

Frank said:

What the fuck were these guys doing, trying out to be villains in Captain Planet?

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Haha, the brofist is because this was literally my first thought too.

North_Ranger said:

Goddamn Chinese medicine...

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I am so fucking tired of hearing about how an animal is becoming extinct or an environment is being shredded because of stupid Chinese medicine. Fuck off already with that shit. Hey, rural Chinese people! Your dick is going to be limp sometimes in life, stop eating/snorting/drinking every random animal you see in hopes that it will fix the problem.

Tress said:

Hey, rural Chinese people! Your dick is going to be limp sometimes in life, stop eating/snorting/drinking every random animal you see in hopes that it will fix the problem.

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Look at Mr. Bigshot here with his rock hard dick. SOME OF US NEED SOMETHING TO HOPE FOR, Tress

Frank said:

This is a pangolin, cute little buggers being hunted to extinction because they're a delicacy and their meat is thought to have (Surprise, surprise) medicinal qualities in some parts of China by millions of ignorant shitheads.

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Fixed.

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Look at cute little eyes ... MEDICIIIIIINE

There are still some parts of China not whupping our asses in education. Somebody get them a book!

While I personally am not a huge fan of TCM, there are a few things at work here. First TCM has a tradition dating thousands of years. This stuff is ingrained. TCM isn't even China specific. A whole host of Asian countries practice TCM. TCM's significance and popularity has slackened over the years, but it's not going to vanish overnight. For the same reason, Japanese still strongly voice their right to whale around the globe (and this is one of the *extremely* few times I voice my support for Greenpeace) and your branded a traitor in Korea if you attempt to point out the link between abnormally high stomach cancer rates and Kimchi.

Most components of TCM are, by and large, plant/herb based, nor are they all, as it's been suggested, aphrodisiacs. Certain medicines do have animal components and unfortunately, as populations grew, this has taken its toll on animal populations. Thankfully, there are measures being taken, and there's a larger awareness, especially among Chinese youth that certain practices, such as bile harvesting, are beyond cruel and there have been protests and actions taken to prevent such practices, like in guizhoutang.

Calling them millions of ignorant shitheads isn't constructive, and, it's a little insulting. We do a pretty good job of wiping out thousands of species ourselves for dumber reasons.

Pangolins are also cousin of armadillos. Which isn't really an important point here, I just wanted to throw it out because...well, you know. Dill.

Still, this is horrible, but also unsurprising. There's still a large number of people out there that don't give a shit for the environment or its inhabitants.

Frank said:

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They're doing what? LEAVE SANDSHREW ALONE!

Terrik said:

Calling them millions of ignorant shitheads isn't constructive, and, it's a little insulting.

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So much this. How do you expect them to respond to you?

"Hi, you're an ignorant shithead, would you listen to my well-reasoned argument that your medicine sometimes flies in the face of scientific research at great cost to the environment with no benefit to anyone?"

Tip: They got insulted at "ignorant" and got angry at "shithead" and didn't listen to anything else, despite it being totally reasonable.

Chad Sexington said:

So much this. How do you expect them to respond to you?

"Hi, you're an ignorant shithead, would you listen to my well-reasoned argument that your medicine sometimes flies in the face of scientific research at great cost to the environment with no benefit to anyone?"

Tip: They got insulted at "ignorant" and got angry at "shithead" and didn't listen to anything else, despite it being totally reasonable.

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So that's why people don't listen to my patented "hey shitfucker" argument!

Ravenpoe said:

They're doing what? LEAVE SANDSHREW ALONE!

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HE'S A HUMAN BEING!

Terrik said:

Calling them millions of ignorant shitheads isn't constructive, and, it's a little insulting.

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It may have come off a little insulting because I was trying to insult them. I'm not interested in holding a constructive lecture on the harmful effects of TCM. I'm interested in venting off some of my frustration on an internet message board. If I thought for a moment this were a venue for any kind of constructive change or impact, I wouldn't have phrased it the way I did.

Tress said:

It may have come off a little insulting because I was trying to insult them. I'm not interested in holding a constructive lecture on the harmful effects of TCM. I'm interested in venting off some of my frustration on an internet message board. If I thought for a moment this were a venue for any kind of constructive change or impact, I wouldn't have phrased it the way I did.

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Soooo...I shouldn't have copy-pasted that and used it as excerpt for my lecture this afternoon, to a large group of Chinese TCM believers? Whoops.

That said, the western world had and still has plenty of similar things. Bear penis was an aphrodisiac all the same, and I assume it wasn't great for the bear population, either. Medicine by way of extracting active ingredients from plants and animals has sbeen used around the world for at least 100,000 years in various forms, and even today, most "new" medicines invented are based off of some rare ingredient found in some weird plant we never knew actually had a useful property.
Let's be clear - I'm not saying it's a good idea to go and shoot a panda because putting their black hairs in your pudding will make your penis grow an inch*. On the other hand, we hunted several types of whales to near-extinction for cod liver oil and such - while the Japanese should probably leave th whales alone, it's hypocritical to say it isn't actually mostly our fault. If the Japanese were the only ones pulling whale out of the ocean, the whale population wouldn't be endangered at all. We're forcing them to stop their traditions before they're ready for it, because we went on with our traditions and ideas for far too long.
If you want people to stop killing Yellow-striped hummingbirds for their kidneys, find out what's in those feathers, make it artificially, and convince all of them to buy yellow-striped-hummingbird-kidney pills in the Body Shop.

Cultural conflict aside, cruelty to animals is wrong and should be minimalized as much as possible. If you're going to eat a cow, feel ree to grind their livers or whatever into pills if you want. If you're going to kill an animal just for a little bit of it, you're probably not doing it right. This is also my philosophy when it comes to fur or leather (cow leather or rabbit fur aren't a big issue for me since the rest of thee animals are used, while mink for example isn't properly edible and the carcasses are burnt - that's wasteful and sad).

*It doesn't work, unfortunately