The bushmeat trade kills millions of primates annually, causing individual welfare harm and population-level threats.
The primate bushmeat trade causes welfare harms at every stage. Hunting methods including wire snares trap animals that may struggle for hours or days before death or discovery. Animals caught in snares suffer acute and sustained pain. Infants who survive their mothers being killed face death from exposure or enter the illegal pet trade where they typically suffer poor care. The scale of primate killing in the bushmeat trade represents individual welfare harm multiplied across millions of animals annually, combined with conservation threats for already-endangered species. Addressing bushmeat requires both enforcement and addressing the food security needs of communities that depend on bushmeat.