Clouded leopards are threatened by deforestation and the illegal pet trade, where cubs are captured from the wild and sold as exotic pets. Their welfare in captivity is extremely poor as they are specialist forest predators with high space and environmental requirements.
Clouded leopard cubs captured for the pet trade suffer acute trauma from the killing of their mothers and the handling and confinement of transport. As specialist arboreal forest predators, they have the most extreme space and complexity requirements of any small to medium felid. Pet-kept individuals develop severe psychological disturbance from inadequate environments. Even in well-resourced zoo conditions, clouded leopards require complex arboreal enclosures with extensive climbing structures to meet welfare needs.