Editors’ Introduction Part III focuses on animal abuse that contributes to the decline of species who live in what we term ‘the wild’ This abuse ranges from small-scale specialised egg collectors to the large-scale and organised poaching of millions of animals in the legal and illegal wildlife trade The three chapters here demonstrate why animal abuse has found a home in the growing green criminology movement (Beirne and South 2007; Hall et al 2016) Environmental destruction poses a real threat to biodiversity owing to the pollution and elimination of animals’ habitat and the inadequate responses compromised by the complex relationship between legal and illegal behaviour Specifically, those responsible for protecting wildlife are able to establish the thin line between legal and illegal acts and to profit from the harms towards wildlife In Part IV the focus shifts to animals used in entertainment Three of the four chapters here (‘Animal Racing’, ‘Hunting and Shooting’ and ‘Animal Fighting’) discuss a variety of the changing practices, perceptions and attitudes associated with the use of animals in sport They demonstrate the inherent conflict between rights and welfare responses to animal abuse, suggesting that the latter may have the paradoxical effect of tempering concern for animals, even as harm to animals remains very real This part concludes by challenging the exclusive focus on terrestrial animals in animal abuse literature and highlights the plight of ‘ornamental’ animals used as entertainment Although scientific evidence verifies that fish can feel pain and that they have feelings, this has not improved their legal standing or reduced their suffering Rather, the failure to improve the welfare of fish emphasises a commonplace obstruction in animal abuse legislation, which exempts the great majority of animals from receiving protection, through an artfully or neglectfully chosen phrase in the legal definition of ‘animal’: all sentient beings? invertebrates? fish? birds? reptiles? ‘vermin’? Part V looks at the use of animals in vivisection and scientific research The two chapters here exemplify the contradictions in our approach to animal welfare and rights The number of animals used in research continues to rise in large part due to outdated legal requirements, rampant scientific curiosity and widespread misinformation on the need for animal experiments rather than the use of non-animal alternatives This is also often supported by government funding The level of duplicity is highlighted in the extensive and secretive use and re-victimisation of shelter cats and dogs in experimentation The harms these animals endure in the lab would be considered criminal in most parts of the developed world if they occurred in any other social situation or scenario