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.

The UK government has an opportunity and a responsibility to lead the world in bringing an end to the global trade in wildlife. This year, at the G20 summit in November, we want the government to call for a global wildlife trade ban and to introduce a new law to ban the import and export of wild animals and wild animal products in the UK.

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. 

This year, our global petition to end the global wildlife trade reached hundreds of thousands of people around the world. We are calling on the UK government to secure a global wildlife trade ban and end the import and export of wild animals and wild animal products into the UK. 

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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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