The illegal wildlife trade causes immense suffering at every stage from capture to transport to captivity, making CITES enforcement a critical welfare as well as conservation intervention.
The illegal wildlife trade causes welfare suffering at catastrophic scale. Wild-caught animals experience the trauma of capture, often cruel containment in small spaces, dehydration and starvation during transport, and death rates that mean most captured animals die before reaching any destination. Survivors face the chronic stress of inappropriate captivity. The welfare case for CITES enforcement and demand reduction is compelling independent of conservation concerns - the per-animal suffering involved is severe and the numbers affected globally are enormous. Demand reduction through public education, consumer behaviour change and market disruption is as important as enforcement.