The following article extract was published by the Daily Maverick and was written by Tessa Knight.

August saw two breakthroughs in pangolin protection: China announced traditional medicines containing pangolin will no longer be covered by insurance, and an Mpumalanga court handed down the harshest sentence for pangolin poaching to date.

Vincent Nyathi has set a precedent for pangolin poaching after he was sentenced to eight years behind bars for keeping one of the endangered mammals in a drum.

According to advocate Ansie Venter, the animal was found after authorities received a tip-off that Nyathi, 32, was keeping a live pangolin in a back room in his mother’s house.

“It was found without food or water and definitely wasn’t kept as a pet.”

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