Pangolins are trafficked in greater numbers than any other mammal. Their welfare in captivity, during trafficking, and in the wild is at critical risk from commercial exploitation.
Trafficked pangolins experience extreme welfare harms from capture onwards. Being placed in sacks, stacked in vehicles, and transported over long distances causes severe stress in an animal that relies on camouflage and solitude. Pangolins deprived of their specific diet of ants and termites rapidly deteriorate in captivity — most confiscated individuals die within weeks despite best care efforts. Those that survive initial seizure face inadequate rehabilitation opportunities given the limited expertise available. In the wild, poaching with wire snares — which pangolins curl around rather than escaping — causes prolonged entrapment. The combination of population collapse and welfare harm makes pangolin trafficking one of the most urgent wildlife welfare crises globally.