Thread by @katzyna

I vividly remember writing this piece 4 years ago and debating the title with the editors. We went with, "The World Has a Chance to Make the Wild Animal Trade More Humane" which felt feeble then & in the wake of the novel #coronavirus even more now. 1/n on.natgeo.com/2SyiY2d

I also remember being branded as an anti-#WildlifeTrade activist after writing the piece, which drew on experiences of people versed in animal welfare who described "battlefield husbandry" when coming upon wildlife crime scenes or encountering still alive and seized wildlife...

For example, Texas state authorities served the owner of U.S. Global Exotics (USGE) in Arlington, Texas, with a warrant. They had 16 hours—after when the warrant ran out—to deal with 1000s of animals from #iguanas to #sloths, in varying states of ill health & some already dead.

A makeshift rescue facility was made and a biologist, Clifford Warwick, was in charge of #infection control, sampling feces for pathogenic bacteria. “There were 16,000 reptiles, 4,000 amphibians, 3,500 mammals, 2,000 invertebrates. The animals were hungry, dehydrated, injured..."

More than 4,000 animals had to be euthanized. “They were beyond reasonable prospects of survival,” Warwick said. “The baby water #turtles, which were under my care, were overcrowded, and many were ill with suspected #Citrobacter infections and in septic shock.” #PetTrade

In court, USGE—which supplied exotic animals to some of the U.S.'s major pet retailers such as #Petco and #Petsmart—argued as its main line of defense that its “turnover” of animals, a more than 70 percent loss every six weeks, was “industry standard.” #PetTrade #WildlifeTrade

Until now, "Risks associated with trading wildlife are still generally thought of in relation to people—esp. spread of #zoonotic diseases (fear of #AvianFlu prompted the EU to ban imports of wild #birds in 2007) and also invasion of local environments by nonnative species."...

But, as pointed out by @willtravers, "what about the animals themselves?”

“The capacity for trade to harm the #welfare of animals involved is clear, whether through fear, anxiety, behavioral restriction, physical injury, or deprivation of resources.” -Sandra Baker @wawcommittee

#Wildlife disease, suffering & mortality are not isolated to markets in China. #PetTrade has led to massive mortality—before, during, after transit—extent of which we will never know. It is thought that up to 100% of birds in Senegal & Indonesia die after capture & before export.

“When you consider that #Interpol estimates that only 10% of illegal trade is detected,” Rose Indenbaum told me, “the number of live—or intended to be live—animals that people tried to bring into the U.S. over the last 10 years increases exponentially.” @Defenders

In those 10 years to which Indenbaum was referring, 324,630 live animals were denied entry & another 5,930 smuggled animals were alive during shipment but died before arrival in U.S. ports. The burgeoning numbers of animals seized at airports & ports present huge problems.

At the time, I also spoke w/ Nguyen Van Thai, ED of Save Vietnam’s Wildlife @SVWpage. His organization has been taking in seized #pangolins since 2006. Keeping them alive meant collecting enough ants & termites to feed them. Some arrived pregnant. Many had to be kept as evidence.

Large losses of animals during #WildlifeTrade undermine the #sustainability goals of international conventions such as @CITES and @UNBiodiversity. The inevitable result is increased harvests to replace dead animals. The issues extend beyond #welfare to #conservation & #OneHealth.

“Rose” Indenbaum above should be Rosa Indenbaum. My error. Read one of the excellent reports she coauthored on wildlife trafficking out of Latin America to USA here including common trade routes & most trafficked species and products: defenders.org/sites/default/…