The bushmeat trade kills millions of wild primates annually, causing individual suffering and threatening species survival across Africa and Southeast Asia.
Animals caught in snares for the bushmeat trade suffer prolonged pain from entanglement injuries, often surviving for days or weeks before death or discovery. Snares cause deep tissue necrosis, limb loss and starvation as animals cannot escape to feed. Great apes that escape snares frequently carry lifelong injuries. Young apes whose mothers are killed in bushmeat hunting are often traumatised survivors who, if not rescued, face death through starvation or exposure. The combination of individual suffering and population-level impact makes the bushmeat trade one of the most significant animal welfare and conservation crises of our time.