Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked wild mammals globally, with over a million estimated to have been poached in the past decade for their scales and meat, facing welfare harms of extraordinary scale during capture and transport.
Pangolin welfare crisis encompasses both individual animal suffering during trafficking and the existential threat to species survival. Trafficked pangolins experience extreme stress, injury, and death rates during transport — packed densely in containers, they cannot regulate body temperature, dehydrate rapidly, and sustain injuries from crushing and rough handling. Captive rehabilitation faces extraordinary challenges because pangolin dietary specialization means providing appropriate nutrition is technically very difficult. Survivors of trafficking face permanent welfare compromise in captivity if release is not possible. The species-level welfare crisis of potential extinction represents a harm of a different order — the elimination of the capacity for any individual pangolin to have welfare experience at all. Wildlife crime enforcement and demand reduction are the primary welfare interventions.