Abstract
Left unattended, the corrosive effects of trafficking-related corruption have the potential to incrementally erode and eventually destroy the very foundations of legitimate and effective government and the rule of law. We see its fruits manifest worldwide to varying degrees in numerous governments. If this fledgling movement to extend to non-Homo sapiens the status of legal persons with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person catches on and that status is institutionalized as justiciable in national and international court systems, it may transform how modern societies value and protect their non-human wildlife and marine resources. The time for such transformation is long overdue.