Pet Trade

The pet trade, unlike the other threats to the rainforest, does not cause the removal of the forest trees, but directly removes essential species of the rainforest instead.  It is estimated that 38 million individual animals are being taken from the rainforest each year for this practice.

photo M. Noonan

Traders sometimes capture the animals by killing the mother and then taking the baby, thus even further reducing the numbers of that particular species in the wild and reducing the number of wild animals that can reproduce in the future.

photo M. Noonan

Two of the most popular types of animals in the pet trade today are parrots and primates.  Many species in these two target groups have in fact become endangered in the wild due to the illegal pet trade. 


CAC is a program of the Institute for the Study of Human-Animal Relations at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY.