The world’s most visible market for illegal ivory isn't underground. It's on Craigslist. Unscrupulous vendors are selling millions and driving elephants into extinction. Tell Craigslist to get serious about stopping the illegal ivory trade.
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Between 2010 and 2012, an elephant was slaughtered every 15 minutes. More than 100,000 elephants were killed to fuel the global illegal ivory trade.
With national and international laws banning the ivory trade worldwide, where can buyers be sure to find it? On Craigslist.
A recent investigation by the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW) and the Wildlife Conservation Society found that Craigslist users
advertise 6,600 ivory and related wildlife products each year — worth over $15 million. And that study only examined a fraction of the sites -- just 28 of the over 400 Craigslist sites in the U.S.
Craigslist already prohibits the sale of animal parts, but this
investigation proves it is little more than lip service. Feeling the
heat, CEO Jim Buckmaster recently added ivory to the explicitly
prohibited items, even though the company has done nothing to actually
stop ivory sales on its website. Meanwhile, African elephants have been driven nearly to extinction.
Tell Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster we want a Craigslist ivory policy with teeth, not tusks. Ban the sale of ivory on Craigslist.
Craigslist vendors use code words like "bone," "scrimshaw" and "faux"
to skirt the complex web of international laws prohibiting the sale of
ivory. The reality is that Craigslist is complicit in a global network of winks and nudges working together to illegally sell ivory -- decimating elephant populations while funding organized crime and terrorism.
The thing is, there is a fix to this -- eBay and Etsy work hard to
eliminate illegal wildlife trade by screening for search terms and other
filtering software. Craigslist is one of the most visible players left
in international ivory trade -- and if it wanted to end the illegal trade of ivory from endangered elephants on its websites, it could do it tomorrow.
We just convinced major airlines across the globe to stop shipping
trophy-hunted endangered animals like Cecil the lion. Let’s make this
another win, and help stop the illegal trade in endangered animals once
and for all.
Join us in demanding Craigslist close its illegal ivory loopholes and save the elephants.
Thanks for all you do,
Paul, Ledys, Rosa, Angus, and the rest of the SumOfUs team
********** More information:
Elephants vs Mouse: An investigation of the ivory trade on Craigslist, IFAW, 2015 The illegal ivory trade is thriving on Craigslist, Treehugger, April 28, 2015
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