In this Faunalytics analysis, we explore 15 years of legal wildlife import data for the U.S., what the numbers tell us about the nature of the industry, and what we can do to stop it.

The global trade in wildlife is a huge problem. The problem doesn’t just lie in the obvious welfare issues inherent with keeping exotic companion animals, for example. The wildlife trade for pets and parts has tremendously negative direct impacts for the animals involved, and even further indirect impacts as it strains biodiversity, endangers species, and contributes to myriad other ecological issues.

The aim of this analysis was to examine United States wildlife and wildlife product imports, with a focus specifically on the scope and breadth of the legal trade. To conduct our analysis, we reviewed 15 years (2000-2014) of data from the Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS), originally collected by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

AI suggested related articles

• Citations/Animal welfare in the United States Opportunities for impact (Animal Ask) (0.65)
• Citations/Advocates, Allies, Adversaries - 12 Years Of Faunalytics’ Animal Tracker (Faunalytics) (0.64)
• Citations/A landscape analysis of wild animal welfare (Rethink Priorities) (0.63)