Wildlife Trade Welfare From Capture to Destination

The global wildlife trade causes enormous welfare harm throughout the supply chain from capture in source countries to sale in destination markets.

Key Facts

The legal wildlife trade is worth over 100 billion dollars annually with illegal trade adding billions more
Capture methods including trapping and netting cause severe injury and mortality
Transport mortality rates can exceed 50 percent for reptiles and small mammals in illegal trade
Animals arriving at destination markets after weeks of transport are severely debilitated
CITES regulates international trade but enforcement is severely underfunded in source countries

Welfare Considerations

The welfare journey of a wild-caught animal entering the global trade is uniformly harrowing. Capture using traps, snares, or nets causes immediate injury and stress. Multiple handling events as animals pass through local traders, exporters, and importers cause cumulative welfare harm. Crowded, dark transport containers with poor ventilation, no food or water, and extreme temperature fluctuation kill between 20 and 80 percent of animals depending on species. Those that survive arrival are severely stressed, often injured, and frequently sold into conditions that prolong their suffering.

What You Can Do

Never purchase wild-caught animals or products from species listed under CITES appendices
Report suspected illegal wildlife trade to wildlife crime reporting organizations
Support CITES enforcement funding and wildlife trafficking prosecution
Advocate for demand reduction campaigns targeting major wildlife trade consumer markets