Social media has become a single global marketplace for the wild animal pet trade. 

The platforms are the marketplace, the algorithms are the marketing, and millions of everyday interactions, from likes and shares to comments and follows, can unintentionally fuel demand for wild animals as pets. 

New research supports this too. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recently published a report, ‘Primates for Purchase’. 

Extinction

It puts a spotlight on the illegal online primate trade in the US, highlighting how wildlife traffickers continue to exploit online platforms despite existing protections, while exposing serious animal welfare concerns. 

Over in Europe, IFAW’s ‘Liked to death’ campaign and report link the “cute” social media content we see in our feeds to what we don’t see: the suffering of wild animals traded and kept as pets.

Two pieces of research from either side of the Atlantic, both telling us the same story of the unconscionable suffering this trade causes. 

Wildlife is in crisis. Animals are under growing pressure from habitat destruction, climate change, and poaching, and nearly three-quarters of the world's primate species are now threatened with extinction. However, there is another factor that is often overlooked: the wild animal pet trade. 

Trafficking

African grey parrot populations have declined by around 90 per cent in some regions over the past 50 years, largely because of the pet trade. 

Global wildlife trafficking is now worth an estimated US$7 billion to $23 billion a year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report from 2016, The rise of environmental crime: A growing threat to natural resources peace, development and security. 

It is therefore one of the world's largest illicit markets. Increasingly, this is now being done using mobile phones. 

The data shows this is not a problem confined to one country. The US ‘Primates for Purchase’ study found 1,614 primates listed for sale in just six weeks across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, with 21 of those listings linked to UK locations. 

Yet awareness in Europe lags far behind the scale of the problem. The ‘Liked to death’ EU report found that while 82 per cent of Europeans surveyed see wildlife trafficking as a serious global problem, only one in three realise that Europe is one of its major hubs. 

Enforcement

In the UK, IFAW’s ‘Behind Closed Doors’ survey of wild pet owners found 54 per cent didn't know whether their pet required a licence and, among those who did, 84 per cent did not have one. 

This is not a trade that’s happening in faraway places under a veil of secrecy. It’s happening right in front of us, on our own screens, close to home. 

The wild animal pet trade now operates as a single global marketplace, running on the same major social media platforms on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Reels, pictures and feeds connect buyers and sellers across borders, while the lack of effective regulation, or of its enforcement, lets illegal trade flourish and reinforces the dangerous idea that wild animals make suitable pets. 

Protection

IFAW has worked with technology companies through the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online for years, and progress has been made. But the trade often moves faster than the response.

The methods used by sellers are similar wherever they operate. Commercial language is replaced with softer terms like "rehoming," "adoption fees" and "rescue" to evade platform filters. 

Buyers are directed off platforms onto WhatsApp or Direct Messages (DMs) to complete the transaction. Emojis stand in for species names to avoid automated detection. 

The language a trafficker uses to sell a macaque in Florida is the language they use to sell an African grey parrot in France. Most social media users have no idea this activity is taking place around them, yet many encounter and engage with the content that helps sustain it. 

Public opinion is well ahead of the politicians on this. The ‘Liked to death' European survey found that 84 per cent of Europeans surveyed support stronger wildlife protection laws. 

Laundered

More surprisingly, IFAW's ‘Behind Closed Doors’ research found that 68 per cent of UK wild pet owners support stricter regulation, including the listing of which species are allowed to be traded (the so-called ‘positive list system’), while 79 per cent say they would be unlikely to buy a wild-caught animal. 

When the people who own wild animals are calling for tighter rules, the case for action is hard to ignore. Although the data demonstrates public advocacy, legislation has yet to catch up with the rapidly evolving platforms. 

The pressure is now on European policy makers to catch up, and the ‘Liked to death’ campaign sets out three clear places to start. 

First, the UK and EU should adopt positive lists identifying which species can legally be kept as pets. This shifts the burden of proof onto sellers rather than enforcement agencies, and clarifies the rules to consumers, traders and police alike. 

Second, the import, trade, and possession of any species protected in its country of origin should be criminalised. Wildlife stolen abroad must not be quietly laundered into a European market through legal loopholes.

Unfolding

Third, platform obligations under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) need to be properly enforced, with real consequences when illegal listings are reported and ignored. 

IFAW became the first wildlife conservation organisation to be designated a Trusted Flagger under the DSA, a status formally recognising its expertise in identifying illegal wildlife trade content online and reporting it to platforms. Yet one in four of the listings it flagged to platforms last year was either rejected or ignored. The framework exists, but what is missing is enforcement.

A buyer in the US, Britain, or anywhere in Europe no longer needs detective skills or back-alley connections to find a wild animal for sale. They need only a phone, a social media account and a few seconds of attention. 

Every like, every comment, every share tells the algorithm to surface more of the same, turning a single trafficker's post into a global marketing campaign. Your like, comment and share fuels wildlife trafficking. 

Until that changes, the wildlife crisis unfolding on our screens will keep playing out in the wild. 

This Author

Ilaria Di Silvestre is the director of policy and advocacy, Europe at IFAW.