Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked wild mammals on earth. Their welfare suffers acutely during capture and transit, making demand reduction and law enforcement critically urgent.
Pangolin welfare is acutely affected at every stage of the trafficking chain. Capture involves physical restraint and stress; transport involves confinement in bags or crates without food, water, or temperature regulation for days or weeks; animals arrive at markets severely stressed and often injured. Captive pangolins rarely survive because their stress is extreme and their dietary needs (live insects, specific ant species) are almost impossible to meet outside their natural habitat. Each pangolin rescued from trafficking requires intensive specialist rehabilitation. The welfare solution requires primarily demand reduction — eliminating the market for pangolin products — combined with strengthened law enforcement and consumer behavior change campaigns in key markets.