Pangolins are the world's most trafficked wild mammal. Their capture, transport, and slaughter for traditional medicine and food causes extreme suffering and threatens all eight species.
Pangolin trafficking causes extreme welfare suffering at every stage. Capture involves physical stress and injury. Transport involves extreme crowding, starvation, and dehydration over days to weeks. Captive holding in markets involves further starvation as pangolins refuse to feed in captivity. Slaughter methods are often inhumane. The welfare impact is compounded by the entirely unnecessary nature of this suffering given that pangolin scale has no proven medicinal properties. Conservation interventions including law enforcement, demand reduction through consumer campaigns, and community engagement around alternative livelihoods address both welfare and conservation simultaneously.