The global exotic pet trade involves millions of animals annually in supply chains characterized by high mortality, inappropriate housing, and welfare compromise from capture through to home environments.
Exotic pets experience welfare compromise across the supply chain: capture stress and injury, inadequate transport conditions, inappropriate quarantine holding, retail display stress, and home environments that cannot replicate their natural habitat or social requirements. The assumption that legal acquisition of exotic pets implies acceptable welfare is false — legality and welfare are orthogonal concerns in the exotic pet trade.