Cheetahs are traded illegally in large numbers, especially to the Gulf states, where they’re prized as pets.

As cheetahs are smuggled out of Africa, a global wildlife summit tackles the exotic pet trade. On Instagram you’ll find hundreds of photos of rich, young Arabs posing with their cheetahs at home, in front of sports cars, even on boats. Habitat loss and fragmentation has pushed them nearer to extinction, but the growing pet cheetah trade is also a formidable foe.

There are fewer than 300 incidents, which may seem like a small number compared with the tens of thousands of African elephants killed every year in the ivory trade, for example, but it’s devastating for cheetahs, which are endangered.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/wildlife-watch-cheetah-pet-trade-restricted-cites/