Demand an end to the global wildlife trade

Every day, thousands of animals are forced into the multi-billion pound global trade in wildlife – killed for food, harvested for traditional medicine, traded as 'exotic' pets or forced into a life of suffering in entertainment.

In 2020, following the outbreak of COVID-19, we launched a global initiative to call on world leaders to instigate a global wildlife trade ban at the G20 meeting in November. We are petitioning all the G20 governments, and to support this in the UK we also formed the Coalition to End the Wildlife Trade, bringing together organisations including Four Paws UK, Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, Compassion in World Farming, League Against Cruel Sports, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), OneKind, Animal Defenders International, Animal Aid, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, People's Trust for Endangered Species, Voice4Lions, Cruelty Free International, Catholic Concern for Animals, Action for Primates, Animal Protection Agency, World Cetacean Alliance and The Donkey Sanctuary, all calling for this global wildlife trade ban.

With the help from our supporters around the world, we are raising awareness and putting pressure on world leaders to implement and uphold a ban to end the wildlife trade and help prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks.

Wild animals don’t belong to us, they belong in the wild

Horrific conditions cause unimaginable suffering in the global wildlife trade. This also creates a hotbed of diseases that originate from animals, leading to deadly outbreaks like SARS and now COVID-19.

With the impact and grim reality of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the globe, we can no longer ignore the dangers of exploiting wild animals: 

  • 60% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, meaning they originate from animals, with 70% of these thought to originate from wild animals
     
  • The methods used to snatch animals from their natural habitats are extremely distressing for them and can cause injury and even death

As well as needing to end the pain and suffering inflicted on animals, we must stop this trade now to help prevent future global health crises and protect our environment for generations to come. 

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This Asiatic black bear has been kept captive in a very small cage for her entire life and used for bile until the extraction was made illegal in Vietnam in 2005. Credit Line: World Animal Protection / Tim Gerard Barker
Wild animals who are ‘farmed’, such as Asiatic black bears, can develop infections, diseases and chronic distress from the torturous routine they endure and terrible conditions they are kept in.
A seized pangolin at the Natural Resources Conservation Center Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia, in 2017. Photographer Reference: Arief Budi Kusuma
Wildlife globally has been packaged up and sold on an industrial scale so that animals are taken from their natural environments or commercially farmed, exposing them to stress and cruelty.
A sugar glider and bat at a market in Jakarta, Indonesia. Credit Line: World Animal Protection / Aaron Gekoski
The global wildlife trade is fuelled by the demand for exotic pets, traditional medicine and the entertainment industry. Millions of wild animals are captured each year for the exotic pet trade.

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