242 J Maher and T Wyatt harms evident in the wildlife trade The techniques of neutralisation evident among actors in both the legal and illegal trade reflect the complexity of offender motivations and the multiplicity of factors influencing these Despite growing concerns and seemingly positive international political will, particularly from consumer nations who often lead the political charge, the wildlife trade continues to grow Arguably, any attempt to reduce the illegal trade and the associated suffering is compromised by a booming, culturally legitimised trade, which involves wide-scale abuse of wildlife The current response is limited, partly due to existing loopholes in regulations and limitations in the political, enforcement and judicial response, but also, and perhaps more importantly, it is our inability to reduce demand and move beyond catching offenders to preventing the killing/capture in the first place What is urgently needed is a long-term strategy which might evoke a sea change in attitudes towards the use and abuse of wildlife References Beirne, P (1999) For a nonspeciesiest criminology Animal abuse as an object of study Criminology An interdisciplinary Journal, 37(1), 117–149 Beirne, P (2007) Animal rights, animal abuse and green criminology In P Beirne & N South (Eds.), Issues in green criminology: confronting harms against the environment, humanity and other animals (pp 55–86) Cullompton: Willan Publishing Beirne, P (2009) Confronting animal abuse: law, criminology, and human-animal relationships Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Beirne, P., & South, N (Eds.) (2007) Issues in green criminology: confronting harms against environments, humanity and other animals Devon: Willan Publishing Border Force (2014) Smuggled iguanas returned home by border force https://www gov.uk/government/news/smuggled-iguanas-returned-home-by-border-force Accessed 12 August 2015 Cao, A., & Wyatt, T (2013) The illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam Asian Journal of Criminology, 8(2), 129–142 Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking [CAWT] (n.d.) Illegal wildlife trade http:// www.cawtglobal.org/wildlife-crime/ Accessed July 2012 Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora [CITES] (2015) The CITES species http://cites.org/eng/disc/species.php Accessed 28 April 2015 CITES Secretariat (2013) Heads of UNODC and CITES urge wildlife and forest offences to be treated as serious transnational organised crimes http://www.cites.org/ eng/news/pr/2013/20130423_CCPCJ.php Accessed 14 October 2014