Pangolins are the world's most trafficked mammals, captured and killed in enormous numbers for their scales and meat, causing immense individual suffering and population collapse.
Pangolins experience profound suffering throughout the illegal trade pipeline. Captured by poachers, they curl into defensive balls and are stuffed into bags where they remain for days or weeks without food or water. Transport conditions include extreme heat, crushing, and dehydration. Many die before reaching markets. Those that survive face slaughter by boiling alive or other methods. The extraordinary scale of pangolin trafficking - millions killed in recent decades - represents one of the largest wildlife welfare crises in history, occurring largely out of public view.