Illegal wildlife continues to slip through Canada’s borders. Experts explain how

Conservationists say Canada's black-market wildlife trade operates in plain sight, with a reptile-fair seller reportedly telling an investigator he could source 'anything you want' from the U.S. within a week. Canadian law bars importing wildlife taken illegally abroad, but does not require importers to prove where an animal came from, so enforcement leans on customs officers eyeballing shipments among the 170 million metric tons moving through the Port of Vancouver alone.

Global illegal wildlife trafficking is valued around $20 billion a year, dwarfed by a legal trade estimated at $220 billion covering roughly 70,000 species with little sustainability data. Canada's border agency says shipments are flagged through risk assessment and intelligence, and species covered by the CITES treaty get permit requirements, but anything outside that list can move with no documentation at all.

Former federal wildlife enforcement official Sheldon Jordan compared Canada unfavorably to Australia and Japan, which now require importers to prove legality up front, calling the current Canadian law barely worth the paper it's printed on.

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