eBay Bans Trade in Ivory October 27, 2008
HSUS just alerted me that eBay has made the ethical decision to stop the trade of ivory on their auction website. This will take effect on January 1, 2009. eBay used to allow ivory, because not all ivory is illegal. Antiques more than 100 years old and mammoth ivory are legal. But, how did ebay tell the difference between legal and poached? They couldn’t. Hence the ban.
Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of HSUS writes in his blog:
eBay’s decision will deny ivory traffickers an important marketplace to sell their goods and it will save some elephants from poachers by drying up a major sales pathway. As many as 23,000 African elephants are poached annually. China is the leading destination for most of this ivory—about one-third of the ivory for sale in the United States was recently carved and illegally imported from China. And a lot of that ivory is offered on eBay.
So comment on eBay’s announcement and say thanks if you’ve got a spare moment. Big companies making ethical decisions for animals are rare. And we like to applaud good behavior.