The global market in illegally traded animals and their parts, including skins, is estimated at 20 billion dollars or more, with over 350 million specimens of all types being sold illegally each year. It is considered the 2nd largest black market after drugs and believed larger than the trade in illegal arms.

Security seals play a role in efforts to bring down this problem, on land and sea. Several organizations including; Fish and Wildlife agencies in the US and many other countries, various UN agencies, CITES affiliated organizations, and the WWF use some type of security or tamper evident seal as a tag to register and identify legally traded items.

American Casting has been supplying seals as secure ID tags for decades to many of these groups. The most commonly used seals are plastic fixed length tags, like our model HS75 and 4001, or pull-up plastic seals like our AP-50 or 9001. However, American Casting & Manufacturing also supply a variety of other security seals that are used in the same effort. Tamper-evident seals are used to securely attach a non-removable serial number and species identification tag on various illegally sold animal or fish parts. This, in turn, helps to identify illegally traded items.

Some items include skins of crocodiles, snakes, alligators, or even protected cats. Tamper-evident seals are also attached to valuable and controlled fish like yellowfin and bluefin tuna, certain shark species, and many more. In many cases, our seals are used on lesser-known species, even the yak hides which are illegally taken and sold in Central Asia.

To learn more on available security seals and how our seals can help in controlling both illegal animal trade and the transporting of them, contact American Casting & Manufacturing to speak with a security seals expert today.