Non-Human Animal Abuse and Wildlife Trade: Harm in the Fur and Falcon Trades

Until recently, the field of criminology has largely ignored the suffering and abuse of non-human animals in the variety of forms in which it occurs. In order to address one aspect of this suffering, this article explores the non-human animal abuse inherent in the trade of wildlife. To demonstrate both the individual harm to non-human animals and the institutionalized abuse in this market, the fur and falcon trades will be detailed. First, since non-human animal abuse and harm have been largely invisible to the criminological community this article sets out one justification for the adoption of a harm-based discourse. The result is examination of the these two forms of wildlife trade from an animal rights and species justice perspective of harm that is now one of the three broad conceptions of justice in the rapidly growing field of green criminology.