Wildlife

Primate Bushmeat Trade and Welfare

The bushmeat trade causes significant welfare harm to primates through capture, holding and slaughter, while orphaned individuals enter the live animal trade.

Key Facts

Primate bushmeat is consumed across Central and West Africa and in diaspora communities
Snaring, shooting and live capture methods are all used in bushmeat hunting
Great apes including chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos are targeted in some regions
Infant primates orphaned by bushmeat hunting enter illegal pet trade
Disease spillover from bushmeat handling creates public health risks alongside welfare concerns

Welfare Considerations

Bushmeat hunting causes acute welfare harm through painful capture methods and slaughter, and chronic harm to surviving infants through loss of mothers and subsequent captivity in the pet trade. Conservation organisations working on demand reduction, livelihood alternatives and law enforcement address multiple welfare dimensions simultaneously.

What You Can Do

Support conservation organisations working on bushmeat demand reduction
Never purchase primate pets or products derived from wild primates
Advocate for enforcement of international wildlife trade laws protecting great apes