Stop International Wildlife Trade

The international wildlife trade is fuelling a public health crisis.

We’re calling on the United Nations, as well as G20 leaders to stop the global wildlife trade by banning both the export and import of wild animals as well as the farming and use of wild animal products for any domestic or medicinal purpose. 

  • The international wildlife trade is a lucrative business, largely fuelled by criminal elements.
  • The trade exploits wild animals for food, pelts, ornaments, jewelry, and traditional medicine.
  • Large tracts of pristine habitat are cleared across the globe to make it easier to capture these animals
  • Those animals are then transported in inhumane, cramped conditions, often across the globe by unskilled, uncaring and unscrupulous operators.
  • We now also know that the trade poses an enormous risk to population health with the World Health Organisation estimating that 60% of all viruses that infect humans come from animals.
  • We must urgently stop this illegal and immoral international wildlife trade.

Will you sign?

 

To the United Nations and G20 Leaders,

Urgently stop the international wildlife trade by banning both the export and import of wild animals as well as the farming and use of wild animal products for any domestic or medicinal purpose. 

Background

The coronavirus pandemic has shone a light on the harsh reality of wildlife markets in China and around the globe. Yet those markets represent just a tiny slice of the international trade in wild animals.

In China alone, wildlife trade is worth more than $73 billion and employs more than one million people. The value of the illegal global trade is estimated by the UN to be around $23 billion.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all viruses that infect humans come from animals. This phenomenon is termed ‘zoonosis’. WHO says that 75% of new infections and diseases in the past decade are zoonotic.

We know that to stop these new diseases from emerging, we must put a stop to the international trade in wild animals, a trade that spans most continents and is highly lucrative.

There’s no doubt this wildlife trade is immoral. We already know about the issues around conservation and the ongoing destruction of habitat that takes place to make capturing these animals easier. We know about the gross instances of neglect and the inhumane treatment of these animals as they’re shipped across the globe in close quarters by untrained and uncaring criminals. And now, on the back of a new coronavirus, we know of the huge risk that the trade poses to human health.

That’s why we must act now to stop the illegal and immoral trade in wildlife that is happening, even in the midst of a pandemic, right across the globe. We demand that G20 leaders, along with the United Nations intervene at the highest level to put a stop to both exports and imports that exploit wild animals, causing irreparable damage to sensitive ecosystems as well as public health.

Yours faithfully

1,323 signatures
  • Jackson Stutsel
    signed 2023-08-04 01:21:05 +1000
  • Kathleen Ager
    signed 2023-06-26 19:08:29 +1000
  • Angela Aris
    signed 2023-06-24 16:49:25 +1000
  • Jess Radevski
    signed 2023-06-18 08:44:21 +1000
  • Tony Prout
    signed 2023-06-14 13:37:41 +1000
  • Maya Macpherson
    signed 2023-04-29 16:27:22 +1000
  • Heidi O'Connor
    signed 2023-04-23 16:13:28 +1000
  • Donna Petterd
    signed 2023-03-18 21:44:31 +1100
  • John Dunn
    signed 2023-02-15 15:35:51 +1100
  • Dianne Peel
    signed 2023-02-13 07:18:17 +1100
  • Sue Lang
    signed 2023-02-04 23:04:34 +1100
  • Kirbie Sloan
    signed 2023-02-04 12:08:40 +1100
  • Ky Lee Durham
    signed 2023-01-29 20:08:35 +1100
    This means a lot to me. I live in Western Australia and we have both illegal and legal animal trading that needs to stop.
  • Sharnee Rawson
    signed 2023-01-28 09:55:38 +1100
  • Joshua Prieto
    signed 2023-01-26 20:51:27 +1100
  • Jessie Watson
    signed 2023-01-19 19:46:50 +1100
  • Michelle Lowe
    signed 2022-12-26 14:14:59 +1100
  • Samantha Townsend
    signed 2022-12-01 06:48:22 +1100
  • Kathleen McCaughtrie
    signed 2022-11-21 14:09:46 +1100
    Humanity must open its eyes before it is to late.
  • Bassam Imam
    signed 2022-11-13 16:14:33 +1100
  • Michele E Sargent
    signed 2022-09-22 01:32:22 +1000
  • Russell Wickson
    signed 2022-08-27 08:32:30 +1000
  • Sue Strodl
    signed 2022-08-19 07:36:45 +1000
  • Robert Rowe
    signed 2022-08-11 00:49:21 +1000
  • Sheridan Adams
    signed 2022-07-30 13:51:59 +1000
  • Paul Suares
    signed 2022-06-28 09:09:39 +1000
  • Peter Vaughan
    signed 2022-06-18 07:56:09 +1000
  • Angie Creed
    signed 2022-06-13 09:24:08 +1000
  • Tanya Castleman
    signed 2022-06-05 09:35:40 +1000
  • Sharon Costin
    signed 2022-05-16 20:33:30 +1000