World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/kinkajou-rainforest-mammal): The Kinkajou: The Rainforest Mammal Most People Have Never Heard Of.

The trade also poses a public-health risk — kinkajous can carry the roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis, which can cause severe disease in humans.

Confiscated kinkajous regularly turn up at South American wildlife rescue centres needing veterinary care and lifetime sanctuary placement, since most cannot be released back to the wild after years of inappropriate captivity.

What animal rescue work for kinkajous looks like Triage of confiscated animals.

Kinkajous seized from the illegal pet trade in Colombia and Peru need veterinary checks, deworming, and weeks to months of behavioural rehabilitation.

Sanctuary care.

Animals that have been kept as pets for years are usually not releasable — they need lifetime sanctuary placement with appropriate housing.

Soft release.

Animals confiscated early in their captivity, and orphans rescued from logging, can sometimes be returned to protected forest with the right pre-release work.

Public education.

Reducing demand for kinkajous as pets in source countries is one of the most effective long-term interventions.

Where WARN fits in World Animal Rescue Network is preparing to support partner rescue centres and sanctuaries across Colombia and Peru that handle confiscated wildlife — including kinkajous, primates, parrots and the wider Amazon caseload.

We are a launch-stage not-for-profit, so this work depends on supporter funding to begin.

If this briefing has introduced you to a species you did not know existed, the most useful thing you can do is back our launch with a donation.

Every gift goes towards getting animal rescue and animal sanctuary capacity on the ground in the rainforest countries where it is needed.

Sources IUCN Red List — kinkajou (Potos flavus) assessment.

CITES — Appendix III listing for Honduras.

UNODC — World Wildlife Crime Report, exotic pet trade chapters.

WOAH — zoonotic disease risk from Baylisascaris and related parasites.

We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work.

We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now.

Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost.

Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation.

You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/capuchin-monkey-colombia-peru): The Capuchin Monkey: The Tool-Using Primate at the Heart of the South American Pet Trade Problem.

## Summary
Capuchin monkeys are small, highly intelligent New World primates found across the forests of Colombia, Peru and the wider Amazon basin — and several species are now formally threatened on the IUCN Red List, primarily because of habitat loss and capture for the illegal pet trade.

## Excerpt
Capuchin monkeys are among the most intelligent primates in the Americas — and one of the most heavily trafficked. They live across the forests of Colombia and Peru, and they are a regular caseload at rescue centres dealing with the South American illegal pet trade.

## Takeaway
Capuchins are divided into two genera — Cebus (untufted, including white-faced capuchins) and Sapajus (tufted, including the bearded capuchin).

## Takeaway
They are among the most intelligent non-ape primates and have been documented using stone tools in the wild to crack nuts.

## Takeaway
Several capuchin species are listed as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

## Takeaway
All capuchin species are listed on CITES Appendix II, and several are on Appendix I, meaning international commercial trade is restricted or prohibited.

## Takeaway
Capuchins are among the most commonly confiscated primates in the South American illegal pet trade — Colombia and Peru rescue centres handle hundreds of confiscated capuchins every year.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/capuchin-monkey-colombia-peru): The Capuchin Monkey: The Tool-Using Primate at the Heart of the South American Pet Trade Problem.

## Briefing
Capuchin monkeys are small, highly intelligent primates native to the forests of Central and South America.

They are some of the most familiar monkeys to anyone who has seen wildlife footage from the Amazon, and they are also among the most commonly trafficked.

WARN is preparing to operate in Colombia and Peru — two countries that hold significant capuchin populations and that handle a large share of South America's confiscated-primate caseload.

This briefing explains what the species are, why they are in trouble, and where frontline rescue and sanctuary work fits in.

What capuchin monkeys actually are "Capuchin" is a common name covering two related genera of New World monkeys: Cebus — the "gracile" or untufted capuchins, including white-faced (white-fronted) capuchins.

They are slimmer, with cream-coloured faces and dark caps.

Sapajus — the "robust" or tufted capuchins, including the bearded capuchin and the black-striped capuchin.

They have heavier builds and characteristic tufts of hair on top of the head.

Adult capuchins typically weigh 1.5-4 kg, with a body length of 30-55 cm and a long, semi-prehensile tail roughly equal in length to the body.

They are highly social, living in troops of 10-35 individuals led by an alpha pair, and they are active during the day in the middle and upper levels of the forest canopy.

Why capuchins are remarkable Capuchins have repeatedly surprised scientists with what they can do.

Wild bearded capuchins in South America have been documented using stones as hammers and anvils to crack open hard-shelled nuts — a feat of tool use comparable to anything seen outside the great apes.

They have also been observed using sticks to extract insects, applying medicinal plants to their fur, and showing complex social behaviours including food sharing, alliance formation and what researchers describe as a fairness response.

Their brain-to-body ratio is one of the highest among non-ape primates.

Where they live in WARN countries Colombia and Peru together hold multiple capuchin species: Colombian white-faced capuchin (Cebus capucinus) — Colombia.

Ecuadorian (Colombian) white-fronted capuchin (Cebus aequatorialis) — Critically Endangered, very limited range.

Guianan weeper capuchin (Cebus olivaceus) — northern Amazonia.

Large-headed capuchin / Peruvian black capuchin (Sapajus macrocephalus) — Peruvian and Colombian Amazon.

Brown / tufted capuchin (Sapajus apella) — widespread across the Amazon basin.

Other capuchin species range across Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela and the Guianas, with the highly threatened Cebus aequatorialis being one of the most endangered primates in the Americas.

Why capuchin monkeys are in trouble The illegal pet trade Capuchins are one of the most commonly trafficked primates in South America.

They are small, intelligent and appear "cute" to buyers — a deadly combination from the animals' perspective.

The trade works like this: hunters shoot adult females in the forest canopy, and the orphaned infants — often clinging to their dying mothers — are taken to be sold.

For every infant capuchin that reaches a market alive, multiple adults are dead.

UNODC's World Wildlife Crime Report documents the South American primate trade as one of the largest illegal wildlife flows on the continent.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/capuchin-monkey-colombia-peru): The Capuchin Monkey: The Tool-Using Primate at the Heart of the South American Pet Trade Problem.

Once taken, captive capuchins suffer enormously.

They are social animals who need their troop.

Isolated as pets, they develop severe stereotypic behaviours, aggression and chronic stress.

Most pet capuchins are abandoned, surrendered or confiscated within a few years — and that is where rescue centres pick up the caseload.

Habitat loss Capuchins are canopy specialists.

Deforestation in the Amazon and Andean foothills — driven by cattle, mining and small-scale agriculture — removes the forest connectivity they need to maintain breeding populations.

Conflict with farmers Where forest is fragmented, capuchin troops sometimes raid crops, and farmers respond with shooting and trapping.

This is a classic human-wildlife conflict where the long-term solution is habitat restoration and conflict mitigation, not lethal control.

What animal rescue work for capuchins looks like Triage.

Confiscated infant capuchins arrive at rescue centres dehydrated, malnourished and often suffering from human-transmitted diseases (capuchins are vulnerable to influenza, herpes and tuberculosis from human contact).

Long rehabilitation.

Rehab is measured in years, not months.

Orphans need to be raised, socialised with other capuchins, taught to forage and reintegrated into a functional troop before any release can be considered.

Soft release where possible.

Where viable habitat exists, rehabilitated troops can be soft-released back to the forest.

Where it does not, sanctuary care for life is the alternative.

Sanctuary capacity.

A significant fraction of confiscated capuchins cannot be released and need lifetime sanctuary placement in species-appropriate enclosures with companionship.

Where WARN fits in World Animal Rescue Network is preparing to back partner rescue centres in Colombia and Peru that handle the full primate caseload — capuchins, spider monkeys, woolly monkeys, tamarins and titi monkeys among them.

Veterinary care, enrichment, enclosure expansion and soft-release programmes all cost money, and rescue centres in source countries are chronically underfunded.

We are a launch-stage not-for-profit, so this work depends on supporter funding to begin.

If this briefing has changed how you think about the South American pet trade, the most useful thing you can do is back our launch with a donation.

Every gift goes towards getting animal rescue and animal sanctuary capacity on the ground in the countries where capuchins and other trafficked primates need it most.

Sources IUCN Red List — assessments for Cebus and Sapajus species discussed.

CITES — Appendix I and II listings.

UNODC — World Wildlife Crime Report, primate trafficking chapters.

WOAH — zoonotic disease risk from human-primate contact.

We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work.

We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now.

Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost.

Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation.

You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/amazon-rainforest-animals-colombia-peru): The Amazon Rainforest: How Its Decline Is Reshaping Animal Life in Colombia, Peru and Beyond.

## Summary
The Amazon Rainforest holds an estimated 10% of all known species on Earth and roughly 40% of the planet's remaining tropical forest, and its ongoing loss to deforestation, fire and drought is now the single largest driver of species decline across Colombia and Peru — directly affecting jaguars, macaws, spectacled bears, river dolphins, sloths and the trafficked wildlife WARN's South American programmes are being built to support.

## Excerpt
The Amazon Rainforest holds roughly 10% of all known species on Earth. As deforestation, drought and fire chip away at it, the animals WARN's South American programmes are designed to support — macaws, jaguars, spectacled bears, river dolphins, howler monkeys — are paying the price first.

## Takeaway
The Amazon Rainforest covers around 6.7 million km² across nine countries; Colombia and Peru together account for roughly 20% of that area.

## Takeaway
The IUCN identifies habitat loss in the Amazon basin as a primary threat for thousands of species, including jaguars, giant otters, pink river dolphins, spectacled bears and at least 30 species of macaws and parrots.

## Takeaway
Around 17% of the original Amazon Rainforest has already been lost, and scientists warn that crossing roughly 20-25% loss could push parts of the basin into a self-reinforcing drying loop ('Amazon dieback').

## Takeaway
The 2023 Amazon drought left river levels at record lows, stranded freshwater dolphins in overheating pools, and was followed by record fire seasons in 2024.

## Takeaway
CITES Appendix I and II listings cover most of the Amazon's most-trafficked species — macaws, parrots, jaguars, river otters, primates — meaning the wildlife trade and rainforest loss compound each other.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/amazon-rainforest-animals-colombia-peru): The Amazon Rainforest: How Its Decline Is Reshaping Animal Life in Colombia, Peru and Beyond.

## Briefing
The Amazon Rainforest is the largest tropical forest on Earth and the single most important wildlife habitat in the western hemisphere.

It covers roughly 6.7 million square kilometres across nine countries and holds — by most credible estimates — around 10% of all known species on the planet.

Two of those countries, Colombia and Peru, are where WARN is preparing to operate.

This briefing summarises what the credible evidence shows about how the decline of the Amazon Rainforest is affecting the animals WARN's South American programmes are being built to support — and what frontline rescue, sanctuary and partner-shelter work can still do.

What the Amazon Rainforest actually is The Amazon Rainforest is not a single ecosystem.

It is a mosaic of terra firme upland forest, seasonally flooded várzea and igapó forest, white-water and black-water river systems, swamp forest, and high-altitude Andean cloud forest at its western edge.

That structural variety is what supports the staggering species count: at least 40,000 plant species, more than 1,300 bird species, 430 mammal species, 1,000 amphibian species and 3,000 freshwater fish species have been described, and IUCN assessments make clear that the real total is far higher because new species are still being formally described every year.

Colombia and Peru together hold roughly a fifth of the Amazon Rainforest by area.

Colombia's share — the "Amazonas" department and surrounding lowlands — is one of the most biodiverse stretches of the entire basin.

Peru's share includes the Madre de Dios region, the headwaters of the Amazon river itself, and some of the most intact remaining lowland forest in South America.

Why the Amazon Rainforest matters for animals From an animal welfare and conservation standpoint, the Amazon Rainforest does five things almost nowhere else on Earth does at this scale: Habitat scale.

Wide-ranging species like jaguars, harpy eagles and giant otters need vast, connected forest to survive.

The Amazon is one of the last places on Earth that still provides that scale.

Climate stability.

The forest generates much of its own rainfall through evapotranspiration.

That stable rainfall is what allows amphibians, fish, river dolphins, primates and forest birds to survive at the population sizes they do.

Refuge from trade.

The deepest interior remains the hardest place for traffickers to reach.

Forest loss makes wildlife more accessible and therefore more vulnerable to capture for the illegal pet trade.

Connection to the high Andes.

The western edge of the Amazon Rainforest grades into Andean cloud forest, the habitat of the spectacled bear and many high-elevation amphibians and hummingbirds.

Freshwater nursery.

The Amazon river system holds the world's richest freshwater fish fauna and the only freshwater dolphins in South America — both pink river dolphins (boto) and tucuxi.

What is happening to the Amazon Rainforest Roughly 17% of the original Amazon Rainforest has been lost, with most of the deforestation concentrated in Brazil but with significant and growing losses in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.

The drivers are well documented in independent assessments: cattle pasture expansion, soy cultivation (mostly outside Colombia and Peru), illegal gold mining (a major driver in the Peruvian Madre de Dios), road expansion, and small-scale agricultural clearance.

The forest is also under increasing pressure from climate-driven drought and fire — the 2023 drought in the Amazon basin left river levels at record lows, and the following year saw record fire seasons across multiple Amazon countries.

Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that the Amazon Rainforest has a tipping point.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/amazon-rainforest-animals-colombia-peru): The Amazon Rainforest: How Its Decline Is Reshaping Animal Life in Colombia, Peru and Beyond.

As losses accumulate and the forest's ability to generate its own rainfall weakens, parts of the basin could shift into a drier, more savanna-like state.

Estimates of the tipping point vary, but the most cited range is around 20-25% cumulative forest loss.

The IUCN's Red List assessments treat this trajectory as a primary threat for an enormous number of Amazon species.

Animals on the front line — what is being lost and what can still be rescued Macaws and parrots The Amazon Rainforest is home to at least 30 species of macaws and Amazon parrots, including scarlet macaws, blue-and-yellow macaws, red-and-green macaws, and the IUCN-vulnerable military macaw.

These birds suffer a double pressure: habitat loss from forest clearance, and capture for the illegal pet trade — both of which intensify when the forest is fragmented and easier to reach.

CITES lists the entire macaw genus on Appendix I or II, but enforcement at the source is patchy.

Tens of thousands of macaws, parakeets and Amazon parrots are estimated to enter the illegal pet trade every year across Colombia and Peru.

Many die in transit; the survivors need triage, quarantine and a slow path back to soft release in protected forest.

Jaguars The jaguar is the apex predator of the Amazon Rainforest and one of the most directly threatened large cats in the western hemisphere.

IUCN lists the jaguar as Near Threatened and treats habitat loss and fragmentation in the Amazon basin as a primary threat.

As road networks open up previously inaccessible forest, jaguars come into more frequent conflict with cattle ranchers and gold miners, and a parallel illegal trade in jaguar teeth, claws and skins is now documented across the Amazon.

CITES Appendix I protects the species in international trade; rescue and rehabilitation of orphaned and confiscated jaguars depends on long-term sanctuary capacity.

River dolphins The Amazon basin holds two of the world's only freshwater dolphin species — the pink river dolphin (boto, Inia geoffrensis) and the tucuxi.

Both are listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Their threats include bycatch in fishing gear, deliberate killing for fish bait, mercury contamination from gold mining, and — most starkly — drought.

The 2023 Amazon drought stranded large numbers of dolphins in shrinking, overheating pools and resulted in mass mortality events in Brazilian and Peruvian waters.

Spectacled bears The Andean (spectacled) bear lives at the western edge of the Amazon Rainforest, where the basin grades into Andean cloud forest.

It is South America's only bear species, listed as Vulnerable by IUCN, and the species WARN's Andean Bear appeal is being built to support.

As Amazonian deforestation pushes upslope and Andean farmland creeps higher, the bear's habitat is squeezed from both sides.

Orphaned cubs and bears displaced from cleared cloud forest are increasingly turning up in conflict situations near rural communities — a classic case where partner sanctuary capacity is the difference between life and death for an individual animal.

Howler monkeys, sloths and primates The Amazon Rainforest holds an extraordinary primate fauna — howler monkeys, capuchins, woolly monkeys, spider monkeys, titi monkeys, marmosets, and tamarins.

Many are forest-canopy specialists who simply cannot persist in fragmented habitat.

Howler monkey heat-stress die-offs have been documented during the most severe recent droughts.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/amazon-rainforest-animals-colombia-peru): The Amazon Rainforest: How Its Decline Is Reshaping Animal Life in Colombia, Peru and Beyond.

Sloths — slow-moving, arboreal, dependent on intact canopy — are particularly vulnerable when forest is cleared piecemeal, and orphaned and injured sloths are now a steady caseload for partner rescue centres in the Peruvian and Colombian Amazon.

Reptiles and amphibians The Amazon Rainforest holds the highest concentration of amphibian species on Earth, and amphibians are among the most climate-sensitive vertebrates.

Chytrid fungus — itself a disease whose spread is shaped by temperature and humidity — has already devastated frog populations across the Andes and is documented in the Amazon basin as well.

River turtles, including the IUCN-listed yellow-spotted river turtle, are under pressure from egg collection and habitat disturbance.

How wildlife trafficking and Amazon Rainforest loss feed each other The illegal wildlife trade across the Amazon basin — already one of the largest and most under-policed in the world according to UNODC's World Wildlife Crime Report — gets worse, not better, as the forest is opened up.

New roads built for logging, ranching and mining are the same roads that traffickers use to reach previously inaccessible parrot nests, primate troops and jaguar territories.

CITES enforcement and rescue capacity at the source are the two interventions that can slow this loop down: confiscated animals need triage and rehabilitation; trafficked nestlings need a sanctuary; mothers killed for the pet trade leave orphans that need lifetime care.

What animal rescue, animal shelter and animal sanctuary work look like here The Amazon Rainforest cannot be saved by rescue work alone — that requires long-term policy, enforcement and land-use change well beyond what any single animal charity can deliver.

But the animal-side of the response is indispensable, and the work breaks down into four parts: Triage and rehabilitation.

Mobile veterinary capacity for confiscated parrots, primates, jaguars and bears coming through customs and law-enforcement seizures.

Partner animal shelters and sanctuaries.

The Peruvian and Colombian Amazon already has a small number of experienced rescue centres that hold confiscated wildlife.

They are chronically underfunded.

The single most useful thing an international charity can do is back their veterinary, food and enclosure costs.

Soft release programmes.

Once an animal is rehabilitated, returning it to protected forest is a multi-month process — flight conditioning for macaws, troop integration for primates, large pre-release enclosures for jaguars and bears.

Data and evidence.

Necropsy results, seizure records and rescue case data are what drive the CITES and UNODC enforcement work that ultimately changes the trade itself.

Where WARN fits in World Animal Rescue Network is a launch-stage global not-for-profit animal welfare organisation.

Our planned South American programme — covering Colombia and Peru — is being designed to back exactly this kind of frontline work in the Amazon Rainforest and the Andean cloud forest that fringes it: partner rescue centres for confiscated parrots and primates, support for spectacled bear rehabilitation, and the veterinary and enclosure costs of running sanctuary care for animals that cannot return to a forest that is itself in retreat.

Every WARN programme depends on supporter funding to begin.

If you want your support to land specifically in the Amazon Rainforest, our Parrot and Andean Bear appeals are the most direct routes; if you would prefer our directors to direct funding wherever the need is most urgent across our partner-network countries, an unrestricted gift does that.

Sources IUCN — Red List assessments for jaguar, pink river dolphin, tucuxi, spectacled bear, military macaw and other Amazon species discussed.

CITES — Appendix I and II listings for macaws, Amazon parrots, jaguars, river otters and primates.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/amazon-rainforest-animals-colombia-peru): The Amazon Rainforest: How Its Decline Is Reshaping Animal Life in Colombia, Peru and Beyond.

UNODC — World Wildlife Crime Report, including chapters on South American parrot, primate and big-cat trafficking.

UN Environment Programme — assessments of Amazon deforestation, the 2023 Amazon drought and subsequent fire seasons.

WOAH — assessments of climate-driven shifts in animal disease distribution, including amphibian chytrid fungus.

Support our Amazon work Back the rescue work the Amazon Rainforest needs Our Parrot appeal funds frontline rehabilitation and soft-release work for trafficked macaws and Amazon parrots in Colombia and Brazil, with other range states such as Peru as wider context.

Our Andean Bear appeal supports spectacled bear sanctuary capacity in Colombia at the western edge of the Amazon.

An unrestricted donation lets our directors direct funding wherever the need is most urgent.

Back the Parrots Back the Bears Donate


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/climate-change-effects-on-animals): Climate Change and Animals: How a Warming Planet Is Reshaping Wildlife Across the Countries WARN Works In.

## Summary
Climate change is already driving measurable losses for animals across all the countries WARN is preparing to work in — coral bleaching and rising seas in Southeast Asia, glacier loss and extreme flooding in South Asia, drought-driven mortality in East Africa and habitat shifts in the high Andes — and the IUCN now identifies climate change as one of the top accelerating threats on its Red List.

## Excerpt
Climate change is no longer a future threat for animals — it is already reshaping habitats, food chains and survival rates across Southeast Asia, South Asia, South America and East Africa. A country-by-country briefing on what the science shows and where rescue work fits in.

## Takeaway
The IUCN Red List identifies climate change as one of the fastest-growing threats to species worldwide, alongside habitat loss and illegal trade.

## Takeaway
Coral reefs in the Coral Triangle (Indonesia, Malaysia, parts of the Philippines) have suffered repeated mass bleaching events as sea surface temperatures rise.

## Takeaway
The 2022 Pakistan floods displaced an estimated 33 million people and devastated livestock and working animals — climate-linked extreme rainfall events are becoming more frequent in South Asia.

## Takeaway
East Africa has experienced its worst multi-season drought in 40 years, with WHO and humanitarian agencies reporting major impacts on both livestock and free-roaming wildlife.

## Takeaway
Sea turtle populations face a 'feminisation' problem because the sex of hatchlings is determined by sand temperature — warmer beaches now produce overwhelmingly female clutches across multiple monitored sites.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/climate-change-effects-on-animals): Climate Change and Animals: How a Warming Planet Is Reshaping Wildlife Across the Countries WARN Works In.

## Briefing
Climate change is often discussed in terms of glaciers, sea level and economic damage.

It is talked about less often in terms of the animals — wild and domestic — whose survival depends on stable temperatures, predictable rainfall and intact habitats.

This briefing summarises what the credible evidence shows about how a warming planet is already affecting animals in the countries WARN is preparing to operate in.

The framing is deliberately practical: where the harm is, what species are most exposed, and where rescue, sanctuary and shelter work fits into the response.

The headline finding from IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — which produces the Red List of Threatened Species, the authoritative global assessment of extinction risk — now identifies climate change as one of the fastest-growing threats to wildlife, sitting alongside habitat loss and illegal trade.

IUCN's analyses show climate-related threats appearing in the Red List assessments for thousands of species, including a high proportion of corals, amphibians and marine mammals.

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has also formally recognised climate change as a driver of shifting animal-disease patterns, with vectors like ticks and mosquitoes moving into new territories as temperatures rise.

Southeast Asia: coral, plastic, heat Indonesia and Malaysia — the Coral Triangle Indonesia and Malaysia sit at the heart of the Coral Triangle, the most biodiverse stretch of ocean on the planet.

The reefs of this region support more than 600 species of reef-building coral and an estimated 75% of all known coral species globally.

They are also among the most heat-exposed reefs in the world.

Repeated mass bleaching events — driven by sustained sea surface temperatures above coral thermal tolerances — have been documented across Indonesian and Malaysian waters, with the most severe global events recorded in 1998, 2010 and the 2014-2017 multi-year bleaching episode.

IUCN Red List assessments for reef-building corals now show climate-driven bleaching as a primary threat.

Reef collapse is not only a biodiversity story.

The fish that depend on reefs are the foundation of food security for hundreds of millions of coastal people across Southeast Asia; reef loss is a chain reaction that runs from coral polyps to fish, to seabirds, to coastal communities and back again.

Sea turtles and the feminisation problem Sea turtles nest on beaches across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Malaysia in WARN's current partner network, plus wider educational search contexts such as Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

The sex of sea turtle hatchlings is determined by the temperature of the sand the eggs incubate in: warmer sand produces females, cooler sand produces males.

As sand temperatures rise, monitored nesting beaches across the tropics are now producing overwhelmingly female clutches.

Some long-term studies report female ratios above 90% in the warmest beaches.

The long-term consequences for population genetics are serious, and the issue compounds the existing pressures of plastic ingestion and ghost-gear entanglement covered elsewhere in our Indonesia briefing.

Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia — heat stress and changing monsoons Across mainland Southeast Asia, climate change is showing up as more variable monsoons, more frequent extreme heat events, and shifting flood-and-drought cycles.

For free-roaming dogs and cats in cities like Hanoi, Bangkok and Phnom Penh — populations WARN's cat and dog programmes are designed to support — extreme heat days drive measurable spikes in heatstroke and dehydration in unprotected animals.

For working animals in rural areas, more erratic rains mean more variable crop calendars and longer periods of overwork.

South Asia: Pakistan's compound emergencies Pakistan is one of the most climate-exposed countries on Earth despite contributing a comparatively small share of global emissions.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/climate-change-effects-on-animals): Climate Change and Animals: How a Warming Planet Is Reshaping Wildlife Across the Countries WARN Works In.

The country sits between melting Himalayan glaciers in the north and rising sea levels on the Sindh coast, and is repeatedly identified in independent climate-risk assessments as one of the ten most affected countries by extreme weather over the past two decades.

The catastrophic 2022 floods — which the United Nations estimated displaced 33 million people — also killed or displaced an estimated 1.1 million livestock and working animals according to Pakistan's own national assessments.

Working donkeys, mules, horses, cattle and goats were drowned, separated from owners or lost their pasture and clean water.

Dogs and cats in the affected areas — many of them already free-roaming — lost the food scraps and informal feeders they depend on, and the resulting concentration of stressed animals fed measurable spikes in disease transmission.

Karachi specifically — the focus of WARN's flagship dog appeal — is highly exposed to compound climate risk: extreme heat events, urban flooding, and sea-level rise on the Arabian Sea coast.

The city's enormous free-roaming dog population is at the sharp end of each of these stresses.

South America: the Andes and the Amazon Colombia and Peru — the high Andes The tropical Andes are one of the world's most biodiverse mountain systems and one of the most climate-sensitive.

The IUCN-listed Andean (spectacled) bear — South America's only bear species and the focus of WARN's Andean Bear appeal — depends on a narrow band of cloud forest and páramo habitat that is being pushed upslope by warming temperatures.

As that band thins out at the top of the mountains, the available habitat shrinks.

The same pattern affects high-elevation amphibians, hummingbirds and pollinators across Colombia and Peru.

Lower in the system, the Amazon basin is showing repeated severe drought events — including the historic 2023 drought that left rivers at record-low levels and stranded freshwater dolphins and turtles in shallow, overheating pools.

Howler monkeys and other primates are documented dying of heat exhaustion during the worst events.

The Amazon as a carbon system The Amazon stores an enormous amount of carbon.

Its capacity to keep doing so depends on the forest staying intact and the rainfall cycle staying stable.

Climate-driven changes in rainfall — combined with deforestation pressure — risk pushing parts of the basin into a self-reinforcing drying loop.

The animals at the front of that loop are the ones already living at the edge of their thermal range: amphibians, fish in seasonal pools, and the parrots WARN's anti-trafficking appeal is designed to support.

East Africa: the longest drought in living memory Kenya and Tanzania — the focus of WARN's Elephant Appeal and our planned East African veterinary programmes — have lived through the worst multi-season drought in roughly 40 years.

WHO and UN humanitarian agencies have repeatedly described the situation as a compound emergency: failed rainy seasons, mass livestock deaths, falling wildlife populations and rising human-wildlife conflict as animals concentrate around the remaining water sources.

The animal welfare impacts have been severe and well documented: Elephants.

Kenya Wildlife Service has reported significant drought-related elephant deaths during recent drought cycles, with calves the most exposed.

Wildebeest, zebra, giraffe.

Major drought-linked mortality has been reported in multiple national parks and conservancies.

Livestock.

Pastoralist communities in northern Kenya and central Tanzania have lost a substantial share of their cattle, sheep, goats and camels.

WHO has reported on the cascading nutrition and zoonotic-disease consequences.

Free-roaming dogs and cats.

Drought-stressed animals concentrate around towns, increasing competition for food and the risk of rabies and other disease spillover.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/climate-change-effects-on-animals): Climate Change and Animals: How a Warming Planet Is Reshaping Wildlife Across the Countries WARN Works In.

Climate change does not act alone here — it intersects with poaching, snaring and habitat loss to produce far greater harm than any one threat would on its own.

Snare removal patrols, mobile veterinary care and protected animal sanctuary capacity all become more important, not less, in a drier and more unstable savanna.

Diseases on the move The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) tracks the movement of animal diseases globally.

Its assessments note that climate change is already shifting the geography of tick-borne diseases, mosquito-borne diseases (including those affecting livestock and wildlife) and fungal diseases of amphibians.

For working donkeys in Pakistan, that means new heat-and-vector pressure.

For Andean and Amazonian amphibians, climate-driven shifts in chytrid fungus exposure remain one of the most serious extinction drivers ever documented.

For free-roaming dogs across the WARN region, warmer winters mean longer flea, tick and parasite seasons.

What animal rescue and animal sanctuary work looks like in a warming world None of this means rescue work is futile.

The opposite: climate-stressed animal populations need more rescue capacity, not less.

In practical terms, the animal welfare response to climate change looks like: Disaster-ready field teams.

Mobile veterinary units that can deploy fast into flood or drought zones — to treat injured wildlife, evacuate livestock and feed displaced free-roaming animals.

Stronger animal shelters.

Partner shelters in cities like Karachi and Nairobi need climate-resilient buildings, shade, reliable water, and the capacity to absorb surge intake during heatwaves and floods.

Animal sanctuary capacity for the unreleasable.

Climate displacement means more animals — orphaned orangutans, snared lions, injured raptors — who cannot be returned to a habitat that is itself in retreat.

Sanctuaries for lifetime care are part of the climate response.

Marine response.

Ghost-gear cutting, sea turtle triage, stranded cetacean response — work that gets more, not less, urgent as fishing pressure compounds with thermal stress on the reefs.

Data work.

Every necropsy, every rescue record, every drought-mortality count contributes to the global picture that IUCN and others use to drive policy.

Where WARN fits in World Animal Rescue Network is a launch-stage global not-for-profit animal welfare organisation.

We are not a climate organisation, and we will not pretend we can solve climate change.

What we can do — and what we are being built to do — is fund the animal-side of the response in the countries where the consequences are landing hardest.

Coral Triangle marine response.

East African veterinary outreach during drought.

Pakistan flood and heat response for working animals and street dogs.

South American partner sanctuaries for animals displaced from forests that are themselves in retreat.

Every WARN programme depends on supporter funding to begin.

If this briefing has changed how you think about the animal cost of climate change, the most useful thing you can do is back the appeals that get animal rescue and animal sanctuary capacity on the ground in the countries that need it most.

Sources IUCN — Red List of Threatened Species and climate-change threat assessments for corals, sea turtles, Andean (spectacled) bear, and other species discussed.

World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) — assessments of climate-driven shifts in animal disease distribution.

World Health Organization (WHO) — humanitarian reporting on the East African drought and the 2022 Pakistan floods, including livestock and zoonotic-disease impacts.

UN Environment Programme — assessments of coral bleaching in the Coral Triangle and freshwater stress in the Amazon basin.

National wildlife authorities in Kenya and Pakistan — published drought- and flood-mortality figures for elephants and livestock respectively.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/climate-change-effects-on-animals): Climate Change and Animals: How a Warming Planet Is Reshaping Wildlife Across the Countries WARN Works In.

We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work.

We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now.

Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost.

Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation.

You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/indonesia-plastic-waste-marine-animals): Indonesia's Plastic Tide: How Marine Waste Is Killing Whales, Turtles and Dugongs.

## Summary
Indonesia is one of the largest sources of ocean plastic globally, and the documented impact on its marine wildlife includes a sperm whale found in Wakatobi National Park with 5.9 kg of plastic in its stomach, sea turtles ingesting plastic across all major Indonesian nesting beaches, and ongoing entanglement of dolphins, turtles and dugongs in abandoned fishing gear.

## Excerpt
Indonesia is one of the world's largest emitters of ocean plastic, and the toll on its marine wildlife is now well-documented. From the 5.9 kg of plastic recovered from a sperm whale in Wakatobi to entangled sea turtles in Bali, here is what the evidence shows — and what rescue work can do.

## Takeaway
IUCN identifies marine plastic as a major and growing threat to ocean wildlife, with Southeast Asian rivers among the largest contributors to ocean plastic globally.

## Takeaway
In 2018 a sperm whale washed up in Wakatobi National Park, Sulawesi, with 5.9 kg of plastic inside it — including 115 plastic cups, 25 plastic bags, four plastic bottles and two flip-flops.

## Takeaway
All six sea turtle species found in Indonesian waters are CITES Appendix I-listed; plastic ingestion and entanglement are recognised threats on their IUCN Red List assessments.

## Takeaway
Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear ('ghost gear') is one of the most lethal forms of marine plastic and one of the most rescue-actionable — entangled animals can often be cut free.

## Takeaway
The Citarum river in West Java has been described by UN Environment as one of the most polluted rivers in the world, with documented effects on fish populations and the wildlife that depend on them.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/indonesia-plastic-waste-marine-animals): Indonesia's Plastic Tide: How Marine Waste Is Killing Whales, Turtles and Dugongs.

## Briefing
Indonesia is, by most published measurements, one of the largest sources of ocean plastic in the world.

Its 17,000 islands sit at the heart of the Coral Triangle — the most biodiverse stretch of ocean on the planet — and the marine wildlife that lives there is now living through a slow-motion plastic emergency.

This briefing summarises what the credible evidence actually shows about how plastic waste in Indonesia is affecting animals , drawing primarily on IUCN, the UN Environment Programme, and Indonesia's own Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

The scale of the problem The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has repeatedly identified marine plastic as one of the fastest-growing pressures on ocean wildlife.

In its Marine Plastic Pollution issue brief, IUCN estimates that at least 14 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean every year, that plastic makes up roughly 80% of all marine debris, and that a small number of rivers — overwhelmingly in Asia — contribute the majority of that flow.

Indonesia, with its dense river networks and rapidly growing coastal populations, is consistently identified in this group.

The UN Environment Programme has reported similar figures and singled out Southeast Asia as the region where the impact on marine biodiversity is most acute, because the highest-density plastic outflows occur in the same waters that hold the highest concentrations of threatened marine species — sea turtles, cetaceans, dugongs, sharks and rays.

The Wakatobi sperm whale The clearest single illustration of what marine plastic does to large ocean wildlife in Indonesia is the case of the sperm whale that washed up in Wakatobi National Park, Southeast Sulawesi, in November 2018.

The whale was already dead when it stranded.

When the Wakatobi National Park authority and WWF Indonesia recovered the carcass, they found 5.9 kilograms of plastic inside its stomach.

The inventory was published by the park authority itself and is the most-cited single case in the scientific and policy literature on marine plastic in Southeast Asia: 115 plastic drinking cups 25 plastic bags 4 plastic bottles 2 flip-flops 1 nylon sack More than 1,000 individual pieces of string and plastic fragments The cause of death could not be conclusively determined because of the state of decomposition, but the volume of indigestible plastic in the stomach is consistent with the kind of starvation and gut obstruction documented in other plastic-related cetacean strandings worldwide.

Sea turtles: the most consistent victims Indonesia hosts six of the world's seven sea turtle species — green, hawksbill, olive ridley, leatherback, loggerhead and flatback — and all six are CITES Appendix I-listed, meaning international commercial trade is prohibited.

Their IUCN Red List assessments identify plastic ingestion and entanglement as recognised, ongoing threats.

The mechanism is now well understood.

Sea turtles cannot reliably distinguish floating plastic bags and plastic film from jellyfish, which is a primary food source for several species.

Ingested plastic accumulates in the gut, causes false satiety (the animal stops feeling hungry while actually starving), and frequently causes fatal obstructions.

Field studies of dead and stranded turtles across the Indonesian archipelago consistently find plastic in stomach contents.

Ghost gear: the silent killer The most lethal — and most under-discussed — form of marine plastic is abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear , usually known as "ghost gear".

IUCN and the FAO recognise ghost gear as one of the deadliest categories of marine debris because it goes on fishing long after it has been lost: nets continue to entangle fish, sharks, turtles, dolphins and dugongs, sometimes for years.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/indonesia-plastic-waste-marine-animals): Indonesia's Plastic Tide: How Marine Waste Is Killing Whales, Turtles and Dugongs.

In Indonesian waters, ghost gear is documented as a recurring cause of injury and death in: Sea turtles — entangled by flippers and necks; survivors often require amputation.

Dolphins and small cetaceans — drowned when wrapped in drifting nets.

Dugongs — vulnerable in shallow seagrass meadows where lost nets accumulate.

Sharks and rays — including species listed by CITES.

Crucially, ghost-gear entanglement is one of the most rescue-actionable forms of marine plastic harm.

Trained teams with the right boats, knives and veterinary backup can cut animals free alive — something that is simply not possible with microplastic ingestion.

Beyond the coast: the Citarum and inland wildlife Plastic and chemical pollution in Indonesia is not only a marine issue.

The Citarum river in West Java has been described in UN Environment Programme assessments as one of the most polluted rivers in the world, carrying a heavy load of plastic, textile-industry effluent and heavy metals.

The documented impacts include collapsed fish populations along stretches of the river and reduced food availability for the riverine and estuarine wildlife — including water birds and small mammals — that depend on it.

Rivers like the Citarum are also a primary pathway by which land-based plastic reaches the ocean in the first place.

Where rescue and conservation fit in Plastic pollution in Indonesia cannot be solved by rescue work alone — it needs upstream waste-management infrastructure, producer responsibility, and consumer behaviour change at a national and regional scale.

But rescue work is still indispensable for two reasons.

First, the animals already in trouble — entangled turtles, stranded cetaceans, dugongs caught in ghost nets — need a response now.

Without trained marine response teams, those individual animals die.

Second, the data those teams collect (necropsy results, stranding records, stomach-content inventories) is what drives the policy response in the first place.

The Wakatobi sperm whale changed Indonesian public conversation about single-use plastic precisely because the inventory was published in detail.

What WARN is preparing to do World Animal Rescue Network is at launch stage.

Our planned Indonesia programme is being designed to fund marine wildlife response capacity in priority coastal areas: ghost-gear cutting and disentanglement teams, veterinary triage for injured sea turtles, and necropsy and data work for stranded cetaceans.

We are launching this work in 2026 and we need supporter funding to begin.

Sources IUCN — Marine Plastic Pollution issue brief and IUCN Red List assessments for green, hawksbill, olive ridley, leatherback, loggerhead and flatback sea turtles.

UN Environment Programme — assessments of marine plastic flows from Southeast Asia and reporting on the Citarum river.

Wakatobi National Park Authority and WWF Indonesia — published inventory of stomach contents recovered from the Kapota Island sperm whale, November 2018.

CITES Appendices — listings for all six sea turtle species found in Indonesian waters.

FAO and IUCN joint guidance on abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG / "ghost gear").

We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work.

We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now.

Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost.

Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation.

You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/vietnam-cat-meat-trade): Vietnam's Forgotten Cats: One Million a Year and the Hidden Side of the Meat Trade.

## Summary
Open-source welfare investigations estimate that around one million cats are slaughtered for meat in Vietnam each year, locally referred to as 'tiểu hổ' or 'little tiger' — and a large share of those cats are stolen pets, not strays.

## Excerpt
An estimated one million cats are slaughtered for meat in Vietnam each year — locally known as 'little tiger'. Many are stolen pets. Here is what the credible evidence shows and what humane cat rescue can do.

## Takeaway
Open-source welfare investigations published in 2020 estimate roughly one million cats are slaughtered for meat in Vietnam each year.

## Takeaway
Cats sold for meat in Vietnam are locally known as 'tiểu hổ' — literally 'little tiger'.

## Takeaway
A large share of cats entering the trade are stolen pets, swept up from yards and doorways by collectors.

## Takeaway
WHO has long flagged unregulated live animal markets as a risk pathway for rabies and other zoonotic disease.

## Takeaway
Hanoi has previously published a formal call for residents to stop eating dog and cat meat — reform pressure is already coming from inside Vietnam.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/vietnam-cat-meat-trade): Vietnam's Forgotten Cats: One Million a Year and the Hidden Side of the Meat Trade.

## Briefing
When people in the UK think of the Southeast Asian meat trade, they think of dogs.

The cats are almost invisible — and that invisibility is exactly the problem.

Open-source welfare investigations published in 2020 estimate that around one million cats are slaughtered for meat in Vietnam every year , sold under the local name tiểu hổ — "little tiger".

A large share of those cats are not strays.

They are stolen pets.

The scale of the trade The figures in this section are drawn from the 2020 multi-country open-source investigations into the Southeast Asian dog and cat meat trade, which remain the most comprehensive publicly available dataset on the subject.

Vietnam: an estimated five million dogs and one million cats slaughtered for meat each year.

Cats are concentrated in specific urban and peri-urban regional markets, where they are sold alongside dog meat.

Documented transport conditions include cats packed into wire crates without food or water, frequently in shared loads with dogs of unknown origin.

Documented slaughter methods fall far below any accepted humane-slaughter standard.

'Little tiger': the language of the trade The local market name for cat meat in Vietnam — tiểu hổ, "little tiger" — points to one of the reasons the trade has been so under-reported internationally.

The supply chain is small enough, and language-specific enough, to slip past most foreign-language welfare reporting.

Within Vietnam, however, cat meat has been openly sold in named neighbourhoods of major cities, particularly in the north of the country, for decades.

Stolen pets, not strays The single most overlooked aspect of the trade — for cats as much as for dogs — is how the supply chain actually works.

Demand outstrips the available stray population, so collectors sweep up pet cats from yards, doorways and village streets.

Field reporting from the 2020 investigations documents the same pattern in cat supply as in dog supply: stolen pets, taken in front of owners, moved at speed and at scale.

Pet owners in Vietnam have increasingly organised against the practice, and reform pressure is already coming from inside the affected communities.

A public health problem as well as a welfare one Cats are not the dominant rabies vector globally — that is dogs — but the World Health Organization explicitly recognises cats as a secondary rabies vector and recommends that cats be included in mass vaccination programmes in rabies-endemic regions.

Markets and backyard slaughter points that mix cats and dogs of unknown origin at high density, with no sanitary controls, are precisely the kind of unregulated live animal trade WHO has long flagged as a route for rabies amplification and the emergence of novel zoonotic disease.

Ending the cat meat trade is, among other things, a public-health intervention.

Where the cultural picture is going The 2020 investigations also found that public attitudes in Vietnam are shifting.

Hanoi has previously published a formal call for residents to stop eating dog and cat meat.

Younger urban residents in particular are turning away from the practice, and the assumption that the trade is "traditional" and untouchable does not match what residents themselves are now saying.

Where cat rescue fits in Frontline cat rescue cannot end the trade on its own.

What it can do is intercept cats at known transport choke-points, support local veterinary services to treat survivors of seizures, expand cat shelter capacity for confiscated animals, and back the kind of mass sterilisation and vaccination programmes that reduce stray populations and rabies risk together.

Effective programmes pair veterinary triage with TNVR — trap-neuter-vaccinate-return — so that improvements in welfare and improvements in public health move forward together.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/vietnam-cat-meat-trade): Vietnam's Forgotten Cats: One Million a Year and the Hidden Side of the Meat Trade.

What WARN is preparing to do Our planned Vietnam cat protection programme — part of the wider Global Cat Protection Appeal — is designed to fund partner cat rescue and cat shelter capacity for cats recovered from transport seizures, to support trap-neuter-vaccinate-return clinics for community cats in priority urban areas, and to contribute to large-scale rabies-vaccination drives.

We are launching this work in 2026 and we need supporter funding to begin.

Sources Open-source welfare investigations into the Southeast Asian dog and cat meat trade, published 2020 — the most comprehensive publicly available dataset.

World Health Organization — Rabies Fact Sheet, including guidance on cat vaccination in rabies-endemic regions.

World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) — guidance on humane management of free-roaming cat and dog populations.

Public statements from Hanoi municipal authorities calling on residents to stop consuming dog and cat meat.

Help the cats WARN is being built for WARN's Global Cat Protection Appeal will fund partner cat rescue and cat shelter capacity across Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kenya and beyond — humane catch-neuter-vaccinate-return work, veterinary care for injured community cats, and responsible in-country cat adoption for rescue cats who can be safely rehomed.

Read the Global Cat Protection Appeal for the full plan, or donate today to fund our first surgeries, vaccinations and cat shelter weeks.

Every pound helps another rescue cat get a fair start.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/jaguar-trade-latin-america): The Jaguar Trade: How South America's Big Cat Became a Replacement for Tiger Parts.

## Summary
Jaguars are the largest big cat in the Americas, listed on CITES Appendix I and classified Near Threatened by the IUCN — and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has flagged a rising trade in jaguar parts from South America to Asian markets, in part as a substitute for tiger parts as wild tiger populations have collapsed.

## Excerpt
UNODC has flagged the rising trade in jaguar parts from South America to Asian markets, in part as a substitute for tiger parts. Here is what CITES, IUCN and UNODC data show, and what the rescue response needs to look like.

## Takeaway
Jaguars (Panthera onca) are the largest big cat in the Americas, listed on CITES Appendix I and assessed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List.

## Takeaway
UNODC's World Wildlife Crime Report has documented the rising international trade in jaguar fangs, skins and bones — in part as a substitute for tiger parts.

## Takeaway
Colombia and Peru both contain large stretches of jaguar range across the Amazon and Andean foothills, and both have CITES management authorities active on enforcement.

## Takeaway
Habitat loss, retaliatory killing after livestock predation, and trafficking are the three principal pressures identified in IUCN assessments.

## Takeaway
Rescue and rehabilitation of confiscated jaguar cubs is highly specialist work and requires licensed facilities working with national CITES authorities.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/jaguar-trade-latin-america): The Jaguar Trade: How South America's Big Cat Became a Replacement for Tiger Parts.

## Briefing
The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the largest big cat in the Americas and one of only two true big cats outside Africa and Asia.

It is also, increasingly, a CITES enforcement story.

Over the last decade, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has flagged a rising international trade in jaguar parts — fangs, claws, skins and bones — much of it routed from South America towards Asian markets, in part as a substitute for tiger parts as wild tiger populations have collapsed.

The legal and conservation status The legal picture is clear, even if the enforcement picture is not.

Jaguars are listed on CITES Appendix I .

All commercial international trade in jaguar parts is prohibited.

The IUCN Red List assesses the jaguar as Near Threatened , with a decreasing population trend.

Jaguars are present across most of South and Central America, with the largest remaining populations in the Amazon basin — including parts of Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia and the Guianas.

The trade UNODC has flagged UNODC's World Wildlife Crime Report series has progressively documented the rise of an international market for jaguar parts.

The pattern UNODC describes is consistent with what has been seen for other big cats: fangs and claws sold as ornaments and traditional-medicine ingredients, skins moved as trophies, and bones reportedly moved into supply chains that historically used tiger bone.

As wild tiger numbers have fallen and tiger-bone supply has tightened, demand has displaced onto other large felids — including the jaguar.

This is not a hypothetical concern.

CITES Parties have raised jaguar trafficking explicitly at recent Conferences of the Parties, and several South American countries have stepped up co-operation with CITES management authorities and customs services as a result.

But the enforcement environment across thousands of kilometres of Amazon frontier is extremely difficult.

The drivers on the ground IUCN assessments identify three principal pressures on jaguar populations, all of which interact: Habitat loss and fragmentation.

Deforestation, road-building and agricultural expansion reduce both the prey base and the range jaguars need.

Retaliatory killing.

Jaguars sometimes predate on cattle in frontier areas.

Without functioning livestock-protection programmes, retaliation by farmers is a documented cause of mortality.

Trafficking.

The trade in jaguar parts adds a third pressure on top of those — including, in some regions, jaguars killed specifically for trafficking rather than opportunistically.

Why this matters for rescue The jaguar trade is, at root, an enforcement and habitat issue.

But rescue and rehabilitation play a specific, indispensable role.

When CITES management authorities, national park services or customs teams intercept a trafficked live jaguar — particularly a cub — that animal needs a licensed, species-appropriate facility with the veterinary capacity to take it in.

Without that facility, the seizure is incomplete: the animal either dies or ends up in inappropriate captivity.

The same is true for jaguars rescued from human-wildlife conflict situations.

Specialist big cat rehabilitation is not work an external charity can do directly.

It has to be done by nationally-licensed facilities working under national wildlife law and reporting to national CITES management authorities.

Where international funding makes a difference is in supporting those facilities — quarantine pens, veterinary triage, prey provisioning, and the slow process of building a soft-release pathway for animals that can be returned to protected forest.

What WARN is preparing to do WARN's planned South America wildlife programme will support partner licensed wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centres in Colombia and Peru — countries where we are already preparing to work for spectacled bears, macaws, and howler monkeys.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/jaguar-trade-latin-america): The Jaguar Trade: How South America's Big Cat Became a Replacement for Tiger Parts.

Jaguar response is the natural extension of that footprint: shared veterinary infrastructure, shared CITES partnerships, and shared on-the-ground teams.

We are launching this work in 2026 and we need supporter funding to begin.

Sources UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) — World Wildlife Crime Report series, including chapters on big cat trafficking.

CITES — Appendix I listing for Panthera onca, plus CoP discussion documents on jaguar trafficking.

IUCN Red List — assessment of Panthera onca as Near Threatened.

National CITES management authorities in Colombia and Peru.

We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work.

We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now.

Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost.

Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation.

You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/southeast-asia-dog-cat-meat-trade): Ten Million Dogs and Cats: The Hidden Scale of Southeast Asia's Meat Trade.

## Summary
An estimated ten million dogs and cats are killed for human consumption across Southeast Asia each year — many of them stolen pets, moved across borders in conditions that breed rabies and other zoonoses.

## Excerpt
Investigations across Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia point to an estimated ten million dogs and cats slaughtered for meat each year — many of them stolen pets. Here is what the trade looks like and what reform now requires.

## Takeaway
Open-source welfare investigations estimate roughly ten million dogs and cats are killed for meat across Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia each year.

## Takeaway
Many of the animals are stolen pets, not strays.

## Takeaway
WHO estimates roughly 59,000 human rabies deaths each year worldwide, almost all from dog bites — and unsanitary supply routes are a recognised amplification risk.

## Takeaway
Major cities including Hanoi and Siem Reap have introduced bans or formal commitments to end the trade.

## Takeaway
Effective reform requires alternative-livelihood support for slaughterhouse workers, not punitive measures on individuals.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/southeast-asia-dog-cat-meat-trade): Ten Million Dogs and Cats: The Hidden Scale of Southeast Asia's Meat Trade.

## Briefing
The dog and cat meat trade in Southeast Asia is one of the largest and least visible animal welfare crises in the world today.

Multi-country open-source investigations published in 2020 estimate that around ten million dogs and cats are slaughtered for meat every year across Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia alone.

Many of the animals taken into the trade are not strays.

They are stolen pets.

The problem at a glance The figures in this section are drawn from open-source welfare investigations published in 2020, which remain the most comprehensive publicly-available dataset on the trade.

Vietnam: an estimated five million dogs and one million cats slaughtered for meat each year.

Cambodia: an estimated three million dogs killed for meat each year, with the capital Phnom Penh identified as a regional hotspot.

Indonesia: the remaining share of the regional total of approximately ten million animals per year, concentrated in specific regional markets.

Documented transport conditions include journeys of 18 hours or more without food or water , sometimes across national borders from Laos and southern China.

Documented slaughter methods include drowning, hanging, beating and blowtorching — practices that fall far below any accepted humane-slaughter standard.

Stolen pets, not strays The most overlooked aspect of the trade is how the supply chain actually works.

Field reporting from the same investigations shows demand outstrips the available stray population, so collectors — locally known as "dog catchers" — sweep up pet dogs and cats from yards, doorways and village streets.

Owners frequently watch their animals being taken, and in Vietnam in particular investigators have documented a rise in confrontations between pet owners and collectors.

Reform pressure is increasingly coming from inside the affected communities, not from outside them.

A public health problem as well as a welfare one The trade poses serious public health risks alongside the welfare ones.

Animals of unknown origin are mixed together at high density in live markets and backyard slaughter points, often with no sanitary controls.

That combination is well understood by epidemiologists as a route for rabies transmission and for the emergence of novel zoonotic diseases — a concern the World Health Organization has long raised about unregulated live animal markets in general.

Rabies remains endemic across much of the region, and dog-mediated transmission is the dominant pathway worldwide (WHO, Rabies Fact Sheet).

Removing the meat trade is, among other things, one of the most effective rabies-control measures available.

What the data also shows Public attitudes are shifting.

A 2020 survey of residents in Hanoi reported that 60% of respondents had eaten dog meat at least once , while 44% said they would refuse it in future .

Younger urban residents in particular are turning away from the practice, and several cities in the region — including Hoi An and Siem Reap — have publicly moved to end the trade within their boundaries.

The cultural picture is more complicated than the headline number suggests, and reform is already underway in places.

Where rescue fits in Frontline rescue cannot end the meat trade on its own.

What it can do is intercept animals at known transport choke-points, support local veterinary services to treat survivors of seizures, and help build the sanctuary capacity needed for confiscated animals — many of whom are deeply traumatised but recoverable.

Effective programmes pair veterinary triage with mass vaccination, neutering and community education, so that improvements in welfare and improvements in public health move forward together.

What WARN is preparing to do Our planned Southeast Asia programme is being designed to fund mobile veterinary triage for animals recovered from transport seizures, support shelter capacity for confiscated dogs and cats, and contribute to large-scale community vaccination drives in the regions most affected by rabies.

We are launching this work in 2026 and we need supporter funding to begin.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/southeast-asia-dog-cat-meat-trade): Ten Million Dogs and Cats: The Hidden Scale of Southeast Asia's Meat Trade.

Sources Open-source welfare investigations published in 2020, covering annual slaughter figures, country breakdowns, transport conditions, slaughter methods, and the Hanoi public-opinion survey cited in this dispatch.

World Health Organization, Rabies Fact Sheet.

Source for the statement that dog-mediated transmission is the dominant pathway for human rabies worldwide.

We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work.

We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now.

Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost.

Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation.

You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/orangutan-rescue-indonesia): Orangutan Rescue in Indonesia: Why Borneo's Great Apes Are Running Out of Forest.

## Summary
All three orangutan species — Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli — are listed Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The principal driver is loss of forest habitat to palm-oil, logging and mining; the illegal pet trade is a major secondary driver.

## Excerpt
Indonesia has lost vast areas of primary rainforest over the past decade — and orangutans are paying the price. Here is the situation we are preparing to confront.

## Takeaway
All three orangutan species are Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List).

## Takeaway
Habitat loss to palm-oil, logging and mining is the principal driver.

## Takeaway
Orphaned infants require multi-year staged rehabilitation before soft release.

## Takeaway
Lifetime sanctuary care is needed for animals that cannot return to the wild.

## Takeaway
Protected forest corridors between fragmented blocks are the most cost-effective long-term intervention.

## Briefing
Orangutan rescue in Indonesia is one of the most urgent conservation needs in Southeast Asia. Both Bornean and Sumatran orangutans are classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, with wild populations declining sharply over recent decades. Habitat conversion, illegal logging, and the exotic pet trade are the leading drivers. The problem Indonesia is home to two distinct orangutan species: Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus) and Sumatran (Pongo abelii), plus the more recently identified Tapanuli orangutan. Roughly 100,000 Bornean orangutans are estimated to remain in the wild — down from an estimated 230,000 a century ago. Female orangutans give birth roughly once every 7–8 years, the slowest birth interval of any mammal. Population recovery is exceptionally slow. When forest is cleared, orangutans cannot relocate — their range is canopy-bound. Mothers and infants are stranded in shrinking fragments until starvation or fire reaches them. How rescue works Effective orangutan rescue is a three-stage process. First, field teams locate stranded individuals inside active forest concessions and assess their condition from the ground. Second, qualified veterinarians sedate and safely transport the animals out of the danger zone. Third, the animals are rehabilitated in a secure forest sanctuary — sometimes for years — before suitable individuals can be released back into protected wild habitat. What WARN is preparing to do We are building an extraction and rehabilitation programme in Kalimantan, working alongside local conservation partners. With supporter funding, we will deploy field rescue teams, secure veterinary equipment, and contribute to a long-term forest sanctuary for orangutans that cannot be returned to the wild. We need your help to start. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/pangolin-trafficking-malaysia): Pangolin Rescue: Why the World's Most Trafficked Mammal Needs Help in Malaysia.

## Summary
Pangolins are widely reported as the most trafficked mammal in the world. All eight species are listed on CITES Appendix I, and the IUCN Red List ranges from Vulnerable to Critically Endangered.

## Excerpt
Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal on the planet — and Malaysia sits at the heart of the smuggling routes. Here is why pangolin rescue is now urgent.

## Takeaway
Pangolins are widely reported as the most trafficked mammal in the world (IUCN).

## Takeaway
All eight pangolin species are listed on CITES Appendix I.

## Takeaway
Primary demand is for scales (used in traditional medicine) and for meat.

## Takeaway
Seized live pangolins have very high mortality without specialist veterinary care.

## Takeaway
Malaysia is a major transit hub between source forests in Africa and Southeast Asia and demand markets in East Asia.

## Briefing
Pangolin rescue has become one of the defining wildlife crises of our time. All eight pangolin species are listed under CITES Appendix I, the strictest international protection available. Yet pangolins remain the most trafficked mammal in the world. Malaysia, as both a transit point and a destination market for the trade, is a critical place to intervene. The problem Hundreds of thousands of pangolins are trafficked each year, primarily for their scales. Pangolin scales are made of keratin — the same material as human fingernails — and have no proven medicinal value. Pangolins are solitary, nocturnal, and notoriously difficult to keep in captivity. Most seized pangolins die within weeks unless they are handled by experts. A single pangolin can consume tens of millions of ants and termites a year, playing a critical role in forest insect regulation. How rescue works Pangolin rescue begins with intelligence-led customs interdiction. Once pangolins are confiscated, they need immediate species-specialist veterinary care — most cannot eat anything other than live ants and termites, and many arrive dehydrated and traumatised. Surviving animals are then placed in a soft-release facility within native habitat for a slow return to the wild. What WARN is preparing to do Our Malaysia programme will fund customs-detection training at key transit points, equip a pangolin-specific rehabilitation centre with the right diet and quarantine infrastructure, and work with local rescue partners on safe soft-release into protected reserves. We cannot launch this without supporter funding. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/moon-bear-bile-vietnam): Bear Rescue in Vietnam: Inside the Moon Bear Crisis.

## Excerpt
Despite a national ban, hundreds of Asiatic black bears — known as moon bears — still live on bile farms across Vietnam. Here is the situation, and what bear rescue means now.

## Briefing
Bear bile farming is one of the most prolonged welfare issues in Asia. Bear rescue efforts in Vietnam now focus on retiring the surviving moon bears (Asiatic black bears, Ursus thibetanus) from farms where they have spent years in small cages while bile is extracted from their gallbladders. The problem Bile farming has been officially banned in Vietnam since 2005, and the Vietnamese government has committed to phasing out the practice entirely. Several hundred bears still remain on private farms today. Bile is sold for traditional medicine, despite the existence of effective synthetic and plant-based alternatives. Bears on bile farms typically suffer from gallbladder infections, broken teeth from biting cage bars, severe psychological trauma, and stunted growth. Moon bears can live 25–30 years in sanctuary care once removed from the bile-extraction cycle. How rescue works Each rescued bear requires a structured rehabilitation programme: surgical assessment of the gallbladder and teeth, careful nutrition recovery, gradual social reintroduction, and species-appropriate sanctuary enclosures with grass, trees, and pools. None of these bears can return to the wild — they will require lifetime sanctuary care. What WARN is preparing to do Working with conservation partners, we are preparing a forested sanctuary site in northern Vietnam with veterinary surgery facilities, climate-controlled dens, and quarantine wings. The programme is designed to accept moon bears as remaining farms are closed under the national phase-out. We need supporter funding to make this happen. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/thailand-wildlife-tourism): Thailand Wildlife Tourism: The Hidden Cost Behind the Selfie.

## Excerpt
Elephant rides, tiger venues, bear photo-ops, slow loris selfies — Thailand's wildlife-tourism industry hides serious welfare problems behind a friendly facade.

## Briefing
Thailand's wildlife-tourism industry attracts millions of visitors a year, but a large share of its venues are not what they appear. Behind the photo-op smile of a chained elephant or a sedated tiger sit welfare practices the international animal-welfare community has documented for decades. The problem Thousands of elephants are held in Thai tourism venues, many subjected to severe traditional training practices as juveniles. Sedation is routinely used in tiger and big-cat photo venues to keep adult animals docile around tourists. Slow lorises offered to tourists for handling often have their teeth clipped without anaesthetic — a procedure with a high mortality rate. True sanctuaries do not offer rides, baths, performances, or hands-on contact with adult predators. How to spot an ethical sanctuary Genuine sanctuaries observe four principles: no breeding, no public contact with dangerous animals, no performances, and no buying or selling of wildlife. If a venue advertises elephant rides, baby-tiger photos, or slow-loris cuddles, it is not a sanctuary. What WARN is preparing to do Our Thailand programme will support the retirement of bears, macaques, and lorises out of tourism operations into species-appropriate sanctuary care. We are also building consumer-education resources to help tourists pick venues that do not cause harm. Your support is what makes this work possible. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/cambodia-snare-crisis): The Silent Killer: Why Snare Wires Are Emptying Cambodia's Forests.

## Excerpt
Cambodia's eastern forests are riddled with wire snares. Pangolins, sun bears, elephants, leopards — anything that moves can be caught.

## Briefing
Cambodia faces what biologists now call the "empty forest syndrome": large stretches of mature forest where the trees still stand, but the animals are gone. The primary cause is widespread snaring using cheap motorcycle-cable wire. The problem Researchers estimate that millions of snares have been set across the Lower Mekong region in recent years. Snares are indiscriminate — they catch pangolins, sun bears, leopards, elephants, and gaur in equal measure. A single snare costs less than US $0.50 to set and can remain functional for years. Many trapped animals die slowly from dehydration or wound infection before they are found. How we tackle it Snare removal is one of the highest-impact conservation interventions available. It requires trained patrol teams, GPS mapping of snare hotspots, and veterinary triage capacity to treat animals found alive in snares. Where local communities depend on subsistence hunting, alternative-livelihood programmes are equally important — patrolling alone cannot solve the issue. What WARN is preparing to do Our Cambodia programme will fund and train de-snaring patrols in priority protected areas, support evidence collection for prosecutions, and provide veterinary triage for animals found alive. We also plan to support community programmes that reduce subsistence-snaring pressure over the long term. We need your help to launch this. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/pakistan-dog-culling): Stray Dog Rescue in Pakistan: Why Mass Culling Cannot Solve Rabies.

## Excerpt
Tens of thousands of street dogs are killed in Pakistani cities each year — and rabies cases continue to rise. There is a humane alternative that actually works.

## Briefing
In many Pakistani cities, street-dog populations are still managed by mass-culling methods that international public-health bodies have shown to be both ineffective and unnecessary. Tens of thousands of stray dogs die in public each year, and human rabies cases remain among the highest in the region. Stray dog rescue in Pakistan is therefore not only a welfare issue — it is a public-health one. The problem Roughly 20 million stray dogs live across Pakistan. Pakistan reports an estimated 2,000–5,000 human rabies deaths annually — among the highest figures in Asia. The World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization all agree that mass culling does not reduce rabies. The proven alternative is Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate-Release (CNVR), which has eliminated dog-mediated rabies in cities including Jaipur, Chennai, and Bali. Why culling does not work Removing dogs from a territory triggers a rapid replacement effect — surrounding dog populations move into the vacated area within weeks, unvaccinated and unsterilised. Each cull therefore creates a fresh population that is just as vulnerable to rabies as the last. CNVR breaks the cycle by stabilising a vaccinated, sterilised, non-aggressive dog population. What WARN is preparing to do Working with local welfare partners, we plan to launch CNVR clinics in Karachi and Lahore and engage with provincial authorities to support CNVR as official policy. If you are looking for ways to help locally, search "puppies for adoption" or "dog adoption" with rescues in your area — and consider funding our work overseas where the need is greatest. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/colombia-parrot-trade): The Illegal Parrot Trade Bleeding Colombia's Forests.

## Excerpt
Colombia is the most biodiverse country on Earth — and one of the most active sources of trafficked parrots. The trade is huge, hidden, and devastating.

## Briefing
Parrot rescue and macaw rescue in Colombia are inseparable from one of the largest illegal wildlife trades in the Americas. Colombia hosts more bird species than any other country, and many of those birds — especially parrots, macaws, and amazons — are taken from the wild for the international pet trade. The problem Millions of birds are taken from the wild across South America each year for the pet trade. For every parrot that reaches a buyer alive, several die in transport — from heat, dehydration, broken wings, or asphyxiation. Many trafficked chicks are taken from nests by destroying nesting trees, eliminating not only the family but also the nest site for future generations. Colombia is home to more than 50 parrot species, including the Critically Endangered Yellow-eared Parrot. How rescue works Confiscated parrots need triage (many arrive injured or starving), rehabilitation in large flocking aviaries to relearn social behaviour and flight skills, and soft-release into native habitat. Done well, a single recovered parrot can re-enter a wild breeding population. Done badly, the bird ends up in a cage for the rest of its life. What WARN is preparing to do Working with local conservation partners across Colombia, WARN plans to fund parrot triage, large soft-release aviaries, and intelligence-sharing with enforcement authorities investigating the export pipeline. We also plan to support implementation of new restrictions on the domestic sale of native wildlife. We need your help to start. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/amazon-illegal-mining-wildlife): Mercury and Machines: How Illegal Mining Threatens Peru's Amazon Wildlife.

## Excerpt
In Madre de Dios, illegal gold mining clears rainforest and releases mercury into rivers. The animals that survive the deforestation are poisoned by the water.

## Briefing
Peru's southern Amazon — the Madre de Dios region — is being lost faster than almost any equivalent rainforest on Earth. Illegal alluvial gold mining clears the forest, and the mercury used to bind the gold enters every river it touches. Animals that escape the bulldozers do not escape the water. The problem Over 100,000 hectares of Peruvian rainforest have been cleared by illegal mining in the past 15 years. Substantial amounts of mercury enter the Madre de Dios watershed every year. Mercury bioaccumulates: river fish, then river otters, then capuchin monkeys and macaws drinking from clay licks all carry elevated levels. Scarlet macaws (Ara macao) and red-and-green macaws (Ara chloropterus) depend on Madre de Dios clay licks for essential minerals. Why this region matters Madre de Dios is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet — home to over 1,200 bird species, 200 mammal species, and a substantial share of the Amazon's macaw population. Losing it does not only harm the animals; it changes the ecology of the entire western Amazon basin. What WARN is preparing to do WARN's Peru programme will fund a forest sanctuary for primates and macaws confiscated from the pet trade, support training for officers on field-confiscation triage, and contribute to mercury-awareness work with riverside communities. We need supporter funding to begin. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/kenya-snare-crisis): Why Africa's Elephants Are Being Lost to Wire — Not Bullets.

## Excerpt
Ivory poaching gets the headlines, but across much of East Africa the bigger threat to elephants is cheap snare wire set for bushmeat.

## Briefing
The image most people associate with elephant poaching is an ivory carcass. The reality across much of East Africa is different — and quieter. The most consistent threat to elephants in Kenya's Tsavo ecosystem is wire snaring, set not for elephants but for bushmeat species like impala and buffalo. The problem The Tsavo ecosystem protects around 13,000 elephants — Kenya's largest single elephant population. Roughly 2,000 snares are removed from Tsavo each year by ranger patrols, with many more never found. Elephants caught in snares typically survive the initial capture and walk on — the wire cuts deeper over weeks until infection sets in. Snare wounds are treatable if found early. Field surgery in the wild has a survival rate above 80% with rapid veterinary response. How rescue works Snare wounds on elephants are easiest to spot from the air — a limp visible at distance, a younger animal lagging behind the herd. Aerial surveys give ground teams the location, and the elephant's life then depends on how fast that report becomes a darting operation and a wound debridement in the field. What WARN is preparing to do Our Kenya programme is designed to fund a mobile field-surgery unit, aerial patrol hours over Tsavo, thermal-imaging drones for ranger services, and a separate sea-turtle triage capacity on the Mombasa coast. None of this is possible without supporter funding. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.


World Animal Rescue Network (https://worldanimalrescuenetwork.org/newsroom/tanzania-corridor-bushmeat): Bushmeat and the Selous–Niassa Corridor: A Quiet Wildlife Emergency.

## Excerpt
The forest corridor connecting Tanzania's southern reserves with Mozambique is one of Africa's most ecologically important. It is also one of its most heavily snared.

## Briefing
The Selous–Niassa corridor links Tanzania's vast Selous Game Reserve with the Niassa Reserve across the Mozambique border. Together they form one of the largest contiguous protected ecosystems in Africa — and one of the most heavily affected by bushmeat snaring. The problem The Selous–Niassa corridor covers more than 154,000 km² across two countries. Bushmeat snaring is now considered one of the biggest threats to large mammals in this landscape. Cross-border smuggling routes complicate enforcement on both sides of the border. Lions, elephants, leopards, and wild dogs are all collateral victims of snares set for antelope. How we tackle it Effective anti-poaching in this corridor cannot be enforcement-only. It also requires reducing local demand for bushmeat through alternative-protein programmes, supporting ranger services with veterinary backup, and giving villages a direct stake in the wildlife economy around them. What WARN is preparing to do Working with local conservation partners, our Tanzania programme is designed to support ranger anti-poaching patrols, community veterinary outreach for villages bordering the reserves, and rapid-response field medicine for any wildlife found alive in snares. We need your support to launch. We need your support to make this happen World Animal Rescue Network is at the launch stage of this work. We do not yet have rescue numbers to share — and that is exactly why your support matters now. Every donation helps us put trained teams on the ground, secure veterinary supplies and equipment, and reach the first animals before they are lost. Donate today to fund our first deployments, or sponsor an animal to back a specific species through rehabilitation. You can also join the network as a volunteer, fundraiser, or monthly supporter.