All eight pangolin species are threatened by illegal wildlife trade driven by demand for their scales and meat, with trafficking involving extreme suffering during capture, transport, and sale.
Pangolin trafficking creates suffering at every stage of the supply chain. Wild capture in snares and traps causes injury and acute stress. Transport in overcrowded, poorly ventilated containers causes dehydration, hypothermia, and suffocation in large proportions of captured animals. Those reaching markets are often killed by blunt force. The few confiscated animals that reach rehabilitation rarely survive because their highly specialized diet and behavioral needs — eating specific ant and termite species in specific ways — are almost impossible to replicate in captivity. Preventing suffering requires demand reduction in consumer markets far more than enforcement alone.