eBay encourages wildlife depletion?

E Commerce Journal
February 13, 2009

eBay auction website was asked to ban the sales of guided trophy hunts for bears, wolves, cougars and other top predators. Canadian and U.S. wildlife advocates including the Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Big Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance claim that eBay’s sales of guided trophy hunts put the survival of these species at greater risk.

“Have the lives of Canada’s grizzly bears, wolves and other large carnivores become so cheapened by the purveyors of trophy hunting that selling an opportunity to kill one is now as commonplace as trying to unload a kitchen appliance or baseball cards on eBay?” asked Chris Genovali, executive director of the British Columbia based Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

If you launch a quick search on eBay you may find auctions for bear hunting in Wisconsin that offers transport ‘to and from the baits at prime hunting hours’ with an Alaska hunt offering black bear, wolf, and wolverine; and a hunt in northern Ontario that offers the ‘opportunity to harvest a big Canadian black bear’.

When last year under the pressure of an International Fund for Animal Welfare which reported the online auction site was helping to fuel illegal trade in wildlife products eBay announced a global prohibition of sales of ivory products the three groups were content with the measures taken. Still the recent review of the eBay auction site revealed that hunting sales complete with photos of grizzlies and other carnivores killed for trophies. The wildlife defenders expressed their concern on that expansive trophy hunting of top predators diminishes the important role these wild species play in the nature cycle.

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