Traditional medicine markets drive demand for dozens of wildlife species, including tigers, bears, pangolins and seahorses, causing enormous suffering and threatening populations across Asia.
Bear bile farming involves keeping bears in crush cages for years, extracting bile through painful catheter methods, causing chronic physical and psychological suffering. Pangolins die in huge numbers during transport — their survival rate in captivity is extremely low, making every captured animal likely to die. Tigers in illegal farms face severe welfare deprivation. The welfare case against traditional medicine wildlife use is powerful: immense suffering for products that lack scientific efficacy. Supporting the shift to evidence-based and plant-based alternatives within traditional medicine systems is an effective welfare strategy.