Part 2: Illegality in the exotic pet trade

Key learning points

1. Trafficked live wild animals make up a large proportion of the international illegal wildlife trade.
2. Impacts of the illegal pet trade include biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, invasive species risks, increased pandemic disease risk and large-scale animal suffering.
3. Demand is greatest for rare animals and is often driven by "cuteness", the film industry, social media fads, addiction or prestige. Online platforms greatly facilitate the illegal pet trade.
4. Once procured, live wild animals are either laundered into a captive breeding or other live animal-based business, sold locally, smuggled out of the country or mislabelled as captive bred and “legally” exported.
5. Criminals working in legal animal-based businesses, as well as corrupt officials, play a key role in obtaining and clearing falsified or otherwise fraudulent paperwork for live animal traffickers, and in helping traffickers to avoid the consequences when detected.
6. As with some other commodities, the main proof of wildlife legality relies on a system of permits and paperwork. Fraudulent paperwork can transform wildlife contraband into seemingly legitimate merchandise, enabling it to be openly traded and evade interdiction.
7. Once traffickers move wildlife outside of the source jurisdiction it can be freely traded internationally, even when the collection and smuggling of these species is prohibited at the source.
8. Captive breeding and wild animal farming facilities, along with trade shows, create significant ambiguity about the legality of animal exports and create opportunities for "laundering" wildlife into legal markets.
9. Enforcing regulations pertaining to captive-bred versus wild-caught specimens remains a substantial challenge for enforcement officials.
10. Australia is a major hub for the illegal pet trade, in particular for reptiles destined for markets in the EU, China and Japan. The US is another high-volume consumer of the pet trade.