The bushmeat trade — hunting of wild primates and other wildlife for meat — causes severe welfare harms through hunting methods, live capture of orphans, and the disruption of complex primate social communities.
The welfare harms of the bushmeat trade are multiple and severe. Snare injuries cause some of the most prolonged suffering documented in wildlife — animals caught in wire traps may struggle for days before death or escape with devastating injuries. Primates killed for meat are typically highly social species whose death disrupts family and community bonds felt by surviving group members. Orphaned infants entering the pet trade experience the acute trauma of maternal loss and social isolation at the most developmentally sensitive period of their lives. The bushmeat trade is not monolithic — subsistence hunters in remote areas face different ethical treatment than commercial traders supplying urban markets — and effective responses must engage with the livelihood realities driving the trade.