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.
4. Captive breeding and wildlife laundering
While most captive breeding and wild animal farming businesses obey laws, rules and regulations regarding the breeding and sale of wildlife, some provide opportunities for traffickers to launder wildlife into the legal trade. Laundering through captive breeding facilities occurs in a number of ways. Captive breeders have been known to:
- falsify or forge authorisations and certificates;
- tamper with identification mechanisms;
- make false declarations;
- mix wild-caught and captive-bred species within shipments;
- illegally procure wild animals to boost the genetic diversity of stocks, including egg stealing and baby animal smuggling (Charity & Machado Ferreira, 2020).
Because they operate in the open and typically hold some sort of government or industry issued license, permit or accreditation, evidence of their “legality” provides cover for illegality (World Animal Protection, 2020).