Reports

Belén market, located in Iquitos the capital city of Peru's Loreto Region, is considered the largest and most important open market selling wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon. The commercial trade in wild animals at urban markets, such as Belén, is illegal in Peru (Law No 29763). However, wildlife trade is poorly monitored and practiced openly.

Our Cargo of Cruelty report reveals Ethiopian Airlines is shipping live wild animals from West Africa around the world for use as exotic pets.

We've just launched our third global assessment and the 2021 results are shocking. Although there have been some improvements many brands show no ambition to improve standards, subjecting chickens to unnecessary suffering and cruelty. 

This investigation reveals a disturbing new type of animal abuse on social media platforms: fake "animal rescues". These cruel videos depict animals including cats and dogs placed in staged situations “in the wild”, such as near “predators” including snakes and crocodiles, only to be "rescued" just in time by a human passing by. In total, we found 181 different fake animal rescue videos published on YouTube between October 2018 and May 2021.

About 24,000 bears are farmed legally and illegally for bile from their gall bladders in China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Lao PDR and South Korea. Their bile is used for traditional Chinese medicine to treat a host of illnesses and wellbeing issues. Either taken from the wild or bred in captivity, they are confined to small cages, deprived of their natural lives and behaviours, enduring poor health and diseases. This World Animal Protection report is an extensive review of the industry conducted from 2015-2018.

How factory farms contaminate public water courses on three continents.  Water downstream from factory farms harbours an invisible threat to people’s health which could eclipse the COVID-19 crisis. 

This report investigates the links of European financial institutions with the biggest drivers of deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado regions, with a special focus on animal welfare.

Are companies making good on promises to end sow confinement? This report aims to put the companies featured on notice and to encourage customers to hold them accountable for lapsed, forgotten, or upcoming commitments.

‘Tracking the travel industry’ is the first study of its kind to compare the animal welfare commitments of 14 of the world’s leading travel
companies. We commissioned the University of Surrey in the UK to independently analyse the public commitments travel companies have
made to improve the lives of wildlife in tourism activities. 

Factory farming and the rise of superbugs. There is ample science showing how antibiotics overuse on factory farms leads to superbugs that spread to workers, the environment and into the food chain. The COVID-19 pandemic should be a worldwide wake-up call for factory farming and its regulators.

This report documents the plight of the 3,837 elephants used in tourism in Thailand, India, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia as of January 2020 and is part of our 10 years work in the region. It features elephant living conditions, training, breeding, the status of the industry, academic research – regarding welfare and conservation.

The Ball python is the single most traded live animal legally exported from Africa. This report highlights all that is wrong with the global system that enables the trade of this species.

How most global fast-food companies still ignore the suffering of chickens in their businesses.

This report outlines the massive scale and profitability of the multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry. It highlights the industry’s links with the corporate investment industry and the suffering of more than 3,000 dolphins for the money that is made from their labour. 

Every day, hundreds of thousands of wild animals suffer cruelty at each stage of the trade chain. This report highlights some of the worst impacts of wildlife trade on the survival and wellbeing of wild animals in Africa. It also draws attention to Africa's top five most illegally trafficked wild animals.

This report documents cruel and demeaning performances and activities taking place in venues linked with the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). This includes elephant rides, wildlife 'selfies' and circus-like shows, all known to cause great physical and mental distress to animals.

Thousands of big cats, mostly lions and tigers, are farmed - bred and killed - annually for their body parts to fuel the highly lucrative global market for traditional Asian medicine products. This report reveals an expanding industry with serious animal welfare concerns and highlights how the big cat farming facilities are driving the commodification of these wild animals, while failing to protect them from poaching.

Making the financial case for more humane chicken production.

How leading global fast-food companies are failing the chickens their businesses depend on. This report, is the first ever assessment of global brands' commitment to the welfare of chickens farmed for meat.

 How higher welfare farming is better for pigs and people.

Each year, thousands of saltwater crocodiles are farmed and killed in Australia for their skins. Fashion Victims details the disturbing plan to greatly expand the Northern Territory crocodile industry by French luxury goods company, Hermès.

This report presents a portrait of Thailand´s tiger entertainment industry. It is the first comprehensive analysis of the tiger entertainment industry in Thailand and highlights the role of governments, the travel industry and tourists globally in protecting them.

For the 5th edition of ‘The Case against Marine Mammals in Captivity’, World Animal Protection and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) provide robust scientific evidence and ethical arguments to support the case that it is unacceptable to house marine mammals in captivity for the purpose of public display. 

Canada plays a significant role in both the selling and buying of wild animals and their parts, sustaining the same global wildlife trade that puts human health, globally, at risk. The wildlife trade supplies live and dead animals and animal parts and derivatives within countries and across borders for a wide array of uses, and carries zoonotic disease risks.