Where this was said
The Reptile Trade as a $20 Billion Shadow Economy
At 37:12 · chapter starts 30:10
Jeremy McBride frames the scope of what Monsters of God is really about: a $20 billion underground economy that most people have never considered, ranking fourth among the world's illegal trades. [1] — Jeremy McBride "$20B illegal wildlife trade: Illegal wildlife trafficking is a roughly $20 billion-a-year global industry, ranking only behind guns, drugs,…" 12:11 In the pre-TSA era, when passengers boarded planes without ID checks, carrying a suitcase full of rare reptiles was almost trivially easy. Reptiles offered traffickers something uniquely valuable: portability, silence, and extreme durability. They require no food or water for long periods, generate no noise, and are nearly impossible for overworked customs agents to identify by species. Eric contextualizes the number — much of the $20 billion is consumption: turtle meat, snake meat, traditional medicine, skins, and luxury goods — but the pure pet trade has exploded, particularly in China, which has adopted exotic reptile keeping at massive scale in the last 25 years.
Coral snake antivenom was discontinued in the US because it was deemed cost-ineffective, leaving bite victims with few treatment options despite the snake's lethal neurotoxin.
