Curbing mass extinction and the collapse of natural ecosystems requires better social understandings of our relationships to animals

As the sixth mass extinction event rages, animal species are disappearing from their native ecosystems at unprecedented levels. Anthropogenic habitat destruction in conjunction with economically incentivized poaching and smuggling operations has created a double bind through which wild animals are removed faster than they can adapt to emerging conditions. The illegal global wildlife trade and exotic pet industrial complex play active roles in this process – yet, remain underexplored phenomena in the social sciences. Calvin Edward argues if we are to avoid the collapse of precious ecosystems, social scientists have a key role to play in exposing the systems of inequality and exploitation that underlie exotic pet ownership.