The international wildlife trade affects millions of individual animals annually. While conservation impacts receive most attention, the welfare of individual animals during capture, transport and keeping is equally severe.
The welfare costs of wildlife trade are staggering and largely invisible to consumers. For every live animal that reaches a buyer, multiple others died during capture, holding and transport. The survivor is typically traumatised, potentially diseased, and now faces inappropriate captive conditions. These are not theoretical harms - each represents genuine suffering experienced by individual animals. The case for closing legal wildlife trade loopholes and strengthening enforcement of existing regulations is overwhelming on welfare grounds alone, independent of the equally compelling conservation arguments.