Pangolins are the world's most heavily trafficked wild mammal, with an estimated one million individuals removed from the wild over the past decade, experiencing severe welfare suffering across the trafficking chain.
Pangolin trafficking inflicts severe suffering at every stage of the supply chain. Capture typically involves pitfall traps or snares that may injure animals before they are manually extracted — pangolins roll into a defensive ball but remain vulnerable to dogs and human handling. Trafficked pangolins are kept in cramped, dark conditions without their specialized ant and termite diet; they stop feeding within days, losing 10-20% of body weight per week. The stress of confinement — for a species that evolved with no natural predators and little capacity for adaptation to captivity — is extreme. Mortality during transit is high; animals that arrive at markets alive have typically endured weeks of starvation and stress. Rehabilitation of confiscated pangolins is extremely difficult and has low success rates, making prevention and law enforcement the most welfare-effective interventions.