Traditional Chinese medicine uses parts from many animal species, including endangered ones, creating welfare and conservation harms in supply chains that are difficult to trace and regulate.
TCM wildlife ingredient welfare harms occur throughout supply chains. Wild-caught animals may be transported live in poor conditions to markets or farms. Bear bile farms subject bears to decades of painful bile extraction. Tiger bone and rhino horn demand drives poaching with all its associated welfare costs. Farm-based alternatives like captive crocodile skin or bear bile farming reduce pressure on wild populations but create intensive farming welfare problems. The most welfare-positive trajectory is demand reduction combined with adoption of synthetic or plant-based alternatives for efficacious ingredients, reducing both wild harvest and farming pressures.