Until recently, the wildlife trade, for many Americans, was a disturbing, but far-off, concern. Every so often, Twitter would erupt in outrage over pictures of someone engaged in trophy hunting, or the occasional Florida Man would have a run-in with an escaped pet python in the Everglades. But, over the last few months, the wildlife trade has hit very, very close to home, in one of the most disruptive possible ways. Many of the early COVID-19 cases were people who had direct exposure to a live animal market, where farmed and wild-caught exotic species were stacked in cages as they waited to be sold and slaughtered. This unnaturally close contact — among species that would rarely or never meet in any circumstance other than through the wildlife trade — creates ideal conditions for animal pathogens to jump species barriers.
The wildlife trade has also come to dominate our living rooms as we sit in social isolation. The salacious Netflix documentary Tiger King, a shocking glimpse of the world of big cat breeding and roadside zoos, has dominated social media and sparked conversations about the dangers posed to animals — as species and as individuals — by the confluence of human power, ignorance, greed, and lack of regulation. Tiger King is just a snapshot of the myriad ways in which people are exploiting and endangering wildlife, both legally and illegally. It’s estimated that the global wildlife trade now affects one in every five animal species and will soon put over 8,000 animal species at risk of extinction, making it a primary driver of biodiversity loss. Today’s wildlife trade is so intense that it has the power to endanger or extinguish a once abundant species over the course of just a few years.
As the world rebuilds from the devastation of COVID-19, there’s an urgency to reset our relationship with animals in ways that ensure a healthier future for animals and people alike. It’s that future that our guest, Zak Smith, is helping to create. Zak is a Senior Attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. For years, he has worked strategically to create new safeguards to protect some of the world’s most iconic and at-risk species — including vaquitas, elephants, and freshwater otters — from the wildlife trade, habitat loss, pollution, climate change, and ecosystem collapse. Zak has built international coalitions to expand cross-border protections for some of the world’s most at-risk animals and has been a leading advocate for domestic protections, worked to end U.S. markets for products such as ivory, and fought against the Trump Administration’s dangerous environmental rollbacks. From seas and rivers to forests and savannas, Zak has been a critical voice for wild animals and wild places.
Recommended books:
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
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