Part 2 of the Wildlife crime – understanding risks, avenues for action learning series provides companies, policy makers, practitioners and law enforcement with information and background knowledge on crime and corruption in the exotic pet trade.
2. Introduction to the exotic pet trade
2.1. Impacts of the pet trade
Habitats, species and individual animals suffer as a result of over-exploitation for the pet trade. The illegal pet trade is a serious driver of biodiversity loss, including as a result of the introduction of invasive species. Illegal harvest can deplete populations to the point of extinction, especially for endemic populations.
For each wild pet sold, as many as 50 other animals may die during capture, transport and sale. At least 60–70 percent of wild animals are estimated to die within their first six weeks in captivity as a pet.
Animals kept as wild pets commonly suffer “as a result of an unsuitable environment, malnutrition, inadequate or inappropriate social contact, and the stress of confinement… and many are neglected or abandoned” (ENDCAP, 2012).
Moreover, the risk of zoonotic spillover is high, as wild pets can carry pathogens infectious to humans as well as domestic pets, livestock and indigenous wildlife. Diseases that may be transferred from wild animals to humans via the illegal pet trade include avian influenza, salmonellosis, hepatitis A, tuberculosis, monkey pox, herpesvirus simiae-B, and various coronaviruses (Charity & Machado Ferreira, 2020).