Efforts to Cease Cheetah Cubs Trafficking
2 Min Read
Minimal international effort has been put into saving cheetah cubs from trafficking danger, as barely 7,000 cheetahs remain worldwide.
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A century ago, there were an estimated 100,000 cheetahs worldwide, however, today, barely 7,000 remain.
Every year an estimated 300 cheetah cubs are trafficked through Somaliland to wealthy buyers in the Middle East seeking exotic pets.
Snatched from their mothers, shipped out of Africa to war-torn Yemen and onward to the Gulf, cubs that survive the ordeal can fetch up to $15,000 on the black market.
A century ago, there were an estimated 100,000 cheetahs worldwide. Today barely 7,000 remain, their numbers slashed by human encroachment and habitat destruction.
More than 3,600 live cheetahs were illegally traded worldwide in the decade to December 2019, according to research published this year that documented hundreds of advertisements for cubs on social media platforms including YouTube and Instagram.
"If this keeps going... that kind of offtake causes the population to go extinct in a very short time," said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF).
Part of the campaign to stop the modern-day trade has focused on changing attitudes in Gulf states, the main buyer market.
Marker said wealthy owners liked to show off their cheetahs in selfies as much as their cars and cash.
Combatting this criminal trade is particularly challenging because it revolves around Somaliland, a self-declared republic without international recognition, and one of the world's poorest regions.
In recent years, confiscations have soared as Somaliland's government has cracked down on the trade.
From just a handful of cubs in 2018, today CCF shelters 67 rescued cheetahs across three safe houses in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa.
Laws criminalizing the sale of cheetahs have also started being enforced.
In October 2020, a smuggling ring was shattered and a high-profile trafficker was prosecuted in a landmark trial.
Somaliland is expanding intelligence sharing with neighboring countries and Yemen to fight the criminals robbing Africa of the iconic species.
"The next generation may never see a cheetah if this illicit trade continues," Edna Adan Ismail, Somaliland's former foreign minister, told an anti-poaching conference in September.
