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Environment Canada investigated a Richmond supermarket last week after receiving reports the store was selling pangolin products, a mammal with a unique scaly skin listed as an endangered species.

Enforcement officers visited the New 2000 Supermarket, in a shopping plaza at No. 3 Road and Leslie Road, on Jan. 29.

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Video posted to the internet a week ago showed a freezer clearly marked “PANGOLIN” and listing a price of $150 a pound. It was not clear what products were for sale in the video but it appeared to be skin or meat.

But officers determined the products in the locked freezer were not pangolin, a spokesperson for Environment Canada said on Saturday. “Wildlife officers did not take enforcement action against the supermarket as there were no offences discovered.”

Photo by Screenshot / PNG

Environment Canada did not say why the store listed the items as pangolin, nor did they say why the store believed they could sell pangolin products, which is prohibited by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (known as CITES). Environment Canada’s enforcement branch is responsible for the regulation of CITES in Canada.