Pangolins are the most trafficked mammals on Earth, with an estimated one million poached over the past decade for their scales used in traditional medicine and their meat as a luxury food.
Poached pangolins experience severe suffering during capture, transport, and holding. They are typically shipped alive in cramped containers without food, water, or appropriate temperature. Many die in transit. Those surviving to markets are often killed by boiling or suffocation. Their extreme vulnerability in captivity means even rescue operations have poor survival outcomes — pangolins typically stop eating under stress and die within months. This makes prevention of poaching, rather than rescue, the primary welfare strategy.