Pangolins are the world's most trafficked mammal, with millions taken from the wild for meat and traditional medicine. Individual welfare in trafficking and captivity is extremely poor.
Pangolin trafficking creates extreme individual welfare suffering at every stage. Capture using snares and nets causes acute trauma; transport in densely packed crates causes stress, overheating, and suffocation. Pangolins coil defensively in response to perceived threat — their primary anti-predator response — and this is not protective against the conditions of trafficking. Mortality during trafficking is very high; many die before reaching market. Those that survive to captive holding face a profound welfare challenge: pangolins eat 70 million ants and termites per year in the wild, and captive feeding of this highly specialised diet is extremely difficult without specialist facilities. Demand for pangolin products is driven primarily by traditional medicine beliefs and luxury food market demand in Southeast Asia and China; reduction campaigns targeting these markets are the most effective welfare intervention.