Each year, tens of millions of live wild animals are captured to supply the international trade in live wildlife. This trade includes the exotic pet trade, biomedical research and teaching, stocking of public or private game farms and hunting ranches, zoos and safari parks and food.
The trade in live wildlife results in the injury and deaths of a large percentage of those animals captured for the trade. The mortality rates of course vary depending on the type of animal, the country of origin, the capture and transport techniques used, and ultimately, the ability of the species to withstand extreme physical and psychological trauma and adapt to a captive environment.
Sadly, as the international wildlife trade has increased and becomes more lucrative, cash-poor, wildlife-rich nations have been unable to control the trade of their wildlife. Forty percent of vertebrate animals that are endangered or threatened with extinction today were brought to that point, in part, by the uncontrollable wildlife trade. Rarely are enough funds available for poor countries to study wildlife populations and to control wildlife extraction and trade to ensure that it is not causing conservation harm to the species.
HSI opposes the trade in live wild animals for any purpose. We work to educate the public about the reasons that wild animals do not make good pets; to encourage the enactment of laws and the promulgation of regulations to stop live wildlife trade; to encourage researchers not to use animals, including wild animals; to stop hunting ranches, including “canned hunts”; to close down road-side zoos; and to eliminate the sale of live wild animals in food markets.
