People who buy smuggled cheetahs need to learn that for each cheetah they buy, at least another one dies.
They may think that owning endangered exotic pets gives them status, but it is an environmental crime, and it should be treated as such. The same goes for poachers, dealers or traffickers.
Environmental crimes are highly profitable because detection and penalties remain low, as compared to crimes involving drugs, arms or humans.
Poverty is a huge factor on the supply side of the illegal exotic pet trade. The closeness of the Horn of Africa to the wealthy Gulf Cooperation Council countries makes cheetah trafficking attractive.
Cheetahs and other animals are easily transported by boat into Yemen, another country in crisis, from where they are distributed to wealthy buyers in the Gulf.
It is possible that cheetahs are even sent to India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, and I have identified social media accounts displaying pet cheetahs or offering them for sale in those countries.
Ending this trade requires global effort, starting with the local communities whose natural resources are being stolen from them, all the way to governments, international organisations, corporations, and the public in general, with the buyers in particular.
There is a strong lack of environmental awareness across the board. Most countries affected by the illegal cheetah trade are signatories to international conventions like CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) or CMS (Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals). Still, neither of these conventions has enough resources to ensure compliance by the parties.
Social media has significantly increased the dealers’ ability to expand their audiences. They also provide exotic pet owners a platform to showcase their illegal purchases.
Conservation is everybody’s responsibility, and if we do not understand its importance, we are condemning ourselves and future generations to come.
Patricia Tricorache is the illegal wildlife trafficking research associate at the Colorado State University’s Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, US
This was first published in the 1-15 October, 2022 edition of Down To Earth