‘Cupcakes’ pay for high medical bills of recovering pangolins

Helen Cary, founder of Cakes for Pangolins, has been raising money for pangolins since November 2022 and has thus far raised R175 000 through the sale of cupcakes, earrings, necklaces, bangles, raffles and donations. “It can cost around R15 000 a week to hospitalise and tube feed one pangolin once a day. “We managed to raise R3000 with the raffle of a 3D pangolin and these much-needed funds were given to Provet Veterinary Hospital to go towards the medical costs of rescued pangolins,” she said.

The winner of the raffle was Cheryl Theron from Hoedspruit. “A pangolin does not eat in captivity. Over and above this, many tests, such as CT scans, X-rays and numerous blood tests are performed to determine what injuries or ailments afflict the rescued pangolin,” she said. “We had an unfortunate incident where a female pangolin was caught and went into premature labour and gave birth to a pup.

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“Her captors hit her on the head to try and get her to open up to get to the pup that was being protected in the curl of her belly. “She sustained a serious head wound in the process. Unfortunately, due to the stress of the situation she had no milk to feed her pup. “The baby only weighed 280g when they were rescued and brought to Provet. The pup had to be bottle fed, which was in itself, extremely difficult,” she added.

“Her hospitalisation was very intense due to the pain she was in. “She eventually went to a rehabilitation centre and was released at a suitable reserve,” she said. “Some of the pangolins that are rescued don’t make it, despite the efforts to try and save them. “Release sites are very carefully investigated before a pangolin can be released and there are a lot of criteria to comply to.” She said the need for money for medical bills never ends. Contact Cary at 083 336 0577 for donations. You can also donated toward their work on Back-a-Buddy.