The bushmeat trade in Central and West Africa kills hundreds of thousands of chimpanzees and other great apes annually, causing immense suffering through trapping, transport, and slaughter of humanity's closest relatives while also driving population collapse.
The suffering involved in the bushmeat trade is multilayered and severe. Snare traps cause injuries that, when not immediately fatal, cause agonizing pain over hours or days before the animal dies or is found. Infant chimpanzees orphaned when their mothers are killed undergo profound psychological trauma — they are cognitively similar to young human children in many respects, and their grief and fear responses are palpable to anyone who works with rescued animals. Chimpanzees in captivity awaiting sale as pets are often kept in solitary, barren confinement that severely compromises their psychological wellbeing. Sanctuary care for rescued chimpanzees, while genuinely welfare-improving, is extremely resource-intensive and cannot address the scale of the problem without demand reduction.