A significant concern in the illegal cheetah trade is the fraudulent misrepresentation of wild-caught animals as "captive-bred" to circumvent CITES regulations. One telling example reveals how 16 supposedly "captive-bred" cheetahs were exported from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to Armenia between 2009 and 2015, despite Bahrain having no known cheetah breeding facilities. This case illustrates how traffickers exploit legal loopholes, as only two registered cheetah breeding facilities exist worldwide (both in South Africa), and cheetahs notoriously breed poorly in captivity. Gulf facilities reported only 304 total captive births since 1994 with a 31% mortality rate for cubs under six months, and no births have been reported since 2016. The practice of labelling wild-caught cheetahs as captive-bred effectively masks their true origins and contributes to the continued decimation of wild populations in East Africa.