Cheetahs are Africa's most endangered big cat, with fewer than 7,000 remaining. Their welfare is threatened by habitat loss, human conflict, and the illegal exotic pet trade.
Cheetah welfare is severely impacted by the exotic pet trade. Cubs captured for sale are often taken from mothers that have been killed, suffer high mortality during transport in cramped, stressful conditions, and live short, psychologically impoverished lives in private hands. Even well-intentioned wildlife sanctuaries struggle to provide adequate space and social conditions for these fast-moving, wide-ranging animals. Wild cheetahs face welfare harms from snaring, trap injuries, and retaliatory poisoning. Cheetah Conservation Fund's livestock guardian dog program — providing Anatolian shepherd dogs to Namibian farmers — has dramatically reduced retaliatory killing while improving livelihoods, demonstrating that human-wildlife coexistence is achievable.