Illegal wildlife trade generates over $10 billion annually, and it is second only to the illegal drug and arms trade. While many people intentionally participate in the illegal wildlife trade, some illegal items, such as ivory trinkets and turtle shells, can easily be purchased in stores or on the Internet by unsuspecting customers. Additionally, wildlife and wildlife products may be legally sold at tourist destinations, but bringing these items home with you may be illegal or require special CITES permits.
Parts and Products: The trade in wildlife parts and products includes exotic leathers and fur, ornamental objects, food (such as shark fins), and traditional medicine.
Live Trade: The trade in live wildlife includes the exotic pet trade, biomedical research and teaching, game farms and hunting ranches, and display of animals captured from the wild.
Be aware:
Ivory
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| The HSUS |
| Ivory carving. |
Buying and selling ivory and ivory products drives the poaching of elephants. Elephant ivory objects are sold mostly in the form of carvings, but also as jewelry, unworked pieces, piano keys, hunting trophies, and individual tusks.
In 1989, the international trade in ivory from African elephants was banned by the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). International trade in Asian elephant ivory had already been banned in 1975. Before the 1989 ban, CITES had tried to regulate and control the ivory trade, but it couldn't. By 1989, it was estimated that 90% of ivory in the so-called legal trade was from poached elephants. It was clear that a legal ivory trade was a death sentence to elephants. Individual nations passed laws to implement that ban.
In the United States, only antique ivory can be bought and sold. However, A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent faced with a shipment of ivory cannot tell by sight if that ivory is antique or if it comes from an elephant or a mammoth (an extinct species whose ivory may be legally traded), there are very few ivory inspectors at U.S. ports compared to the amount imported, and ivory dealers will sometimes offer to provide fraudulent paperwork verifying the age of the ivory.
Turtle Shells
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| A hawksbill turtle. |
For centuries, hawksbill sea turtles were killed for their beautiful mottled "tortoise" shells, which were used to make jewelry, decorative combs and hairpins, forks and spoons, and statuettes. The hawksbill population crashed, and it has never recovered.
Since 1975, hawksbill sea turtles have been fully protected from international trade by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). (Because of an exception to this rule, Japan was allowed to trade in hawksbill shells until 1993.) However, many hawksbills are still killed, and products made from hawksbill shells are still sold in tourist markets worldwide.
Fur
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| The HSUS/Karremann |
| The tragedy of dog fur. |
Real fur can be disguised to look fake by being colored pink, orange, or another unnatural color or it may be used as a trim. It may also be mislabeled as fake or not labeled at all.
In 1999, HSUS investigators unearthed a wide variety of items made from cat and dog fur: full-length coats, linings in boots and gloves, cat figurines, pompons on sweaters, hair bows dyed to look like faux fur, and homeopathic products allegedly to help relieve arthritis. What's more, investigators found that the items were fraudulently labeled, not labeled at all or dyed to look like faux fur.
Although cat and dog fur is now illegal to sell in the United States and the European Union, it can still be sold in other countries. The furs of other animals are sold internationally.
Coral
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| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
| A coral reef. |
Coral reefs compose only a small part of the marine environment, yet they are home to more than 25 percent of the world's ocean fish and are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth. Corals are collected from the wild to make jewelry, and corallium corals are the most valuable type of precious coral in the jewelry trade. They are collected from many regions of the world and manufactured into jewelry and carvings in China, Chinese Taipei, Thailand and The Philippines. In 2006, more than 1.8 million such items were imported to the U.S. alone. The global trade volume is unknown.
Collection of corals for the aquarium and jewelry industries typically targets a small number of rare, slow-growing, long-lived species. Overharvest of these and other coral species can cause localized destruction of reefs, increased erosion, and loss of fish habitat. Large-scale removal of live rock destroys habitat for fish, marine invertebrates, and benthic organisms, and undermines the structure of reefs.
According to a 1998 World Resources Institute Study, human activities have put some 58 percent of the world's coral reefs at risk. Many have been damaged beyond recovery. The corals are collected by using dredges, consisting of iron bars that are dragged along the ocean floor, that not only wipe out coral populations but entire communities of life. The pattern of exploitation has been one of sequential extirpation: as new coral beds are found and soon are wiped out by collectors, who then move on to other coral beds.
Live Animals
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| Parrots crammed into a crate, destined for trade. |
Each year, millions of animals are captured from the wild and sold in the international live wildlife trade. The commercial uses of these animals include the exotic pet trade, biomedical research and teaching, stocking of public or private game farms and hunting ranches.
The trade in live wildlife results in the injury and death of a large percentage of the animals captured. Mortality rates 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. The trade in live animals represents depleted wild populations, damaged habitats and the suffering of countless animals.
Click here for more information on the live pet trade in primates, reptiles, and other exotic animals.
Captive Display Industry
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| Elsa Nature Conservancy |
The captive marine industry helps
finance dolphin drive hunts. |
Contrary to popular perception, captures of wild marine mammals are not a thing of the past. Live captures, particularly of dolphins, continue around the world in regions where very little is known about the status of populations.
The public display industry maintains that it enhances the lives of marine mammals in captivity by protecting them from the rigors of the natural environment. The truth is that marine mammals have evolved physically and behaviorally to survive these rigors. For example, nearly every kind of marine mammal, from sea lion to dolphin, travels large distances daily in search of food. In captivity, natural feeding and foraging patterns are completely lost. Stress-related conditions such as ulcers, stereotypical behaviors such as pacing or self-mutilation, and abnormal aggression within groups frequently develop in predators denied the opportunity to forage. Other natural behaviors, such as those associated with dominance, mating, and maternal care, are altered in captivity, which can have a substantially negative impact on the animals.
Wild-caught marine mammals gradually experience the atrophy of many of their natural behaviors and are cut off from the conditions that allow the expression of cultural traits such as specialized vocalizations ("language") and unique foraging techniques. Viewing captive animals gives the public a false picture of the animals' natural life. Worse yet, it desensitizes people to captivity's inherent cruelties—for virtually all captive marine mammals, the world is a tiny enclosure, and life is devoid of naturalness. Even in the largest facilities, captive dolphins see their room to move decreased enormously, having access to less than one ten-thousandth of one percent of their normal habitat size.
Swim with the Dolphins
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|
WDCS |
| A dolphin petting pool. |
With any marine mammal exhibit, the needs of the visiting public come before the needs of the animals. Enclosures are designed to make the animals readily visible, not necessarily comfortable. Interactive programs, such as swim-with-the-dolphins encounters and "petting pools," do not always allow the animals to choose the levels of interaction and rest they prefer. This can elicit submissive behavior toward humans, which can affect the dominance structure within the dolphins' own social groups. Petting pool dolphins, who are fed continuously by the visiting public, can become obese and are at risk of ingesting foreign objects.
Working with Communities
HSI works to create economic incentives for communities to conserve local wildlife through ecotourism and sustainable income generating activities instead of poaching and illegal wildlife trade. These programs create a strong link between protection of natural resources and increased community income, thus motivating local residents to take a more proactive role in the protection of local endangered species and their habitat.
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| HSI and Local NGOs, incl. Zoo Ave |
| "If you love nature…leave it in its place." |
Reaching the Public
In order to prevent the unwitting collusion of tourists and the general public in the illegal wildlife trade, information must be made readily available as to what constitutes “legal” and “illegal” trade, and what you can do to protect wildlife. To that end, HSI works with local partner organizations to create billboards (like the one above, “If you love nature…leave it in its place.”), radio ads, newspaper ads, brochures, postcards, stickers, coloring books, and other items in order to get the message across: Don’t Buy Wild!
