The illegal wildlife trade causes enormous suffering to hundreds of millions of animals annually, from capture through transport to sale and captivity.
Animals in the illegal wildlife trade experience multiple severe welfare harms: violent capture from the wild, crowded and unhygienic transport conditions, starvation, dehydration, and injury. Many die before reaching markets. Those that survive captivity face chronic stress from confinement in inappropriate environments, inadequate diet, and lack of conspecifics. The trade also threatens wild populations, creating a vicious cycle of increasing rarity driving higher prices.