Chicago (IL) - The Internet is the portal for everything, there isn’t an item you can’t get your hands on these days. A new report now alleges that endangered animals, including chimps, leopard cubs and marmosets are being bought and sold online.
Earlier this year, the International Fund for Animal Welfare conducted six one-week observations, in which it discovered 1400 live, exotic animals being traded on the web. IFAW shared the data with Wired and stated that the majority of the ads were for birds. However, 13 primates, two rhinos, and five large cats were offered for sale or for trade just in the U.S.
Barbara Cartwright, who is in charge of a program to restrict Internet trade of wildlife at the IFAW, said that the organization feels that a lot of the advertisements online actually result in transactions made offline that cannot be tracked. "If I put up an ad for a chimpanzee, you call me, and then we can talk about what I really have," Cartwright told Wired, describing a possible offline networking scenario between illegal animal traders.
Trading of endangered animals is generally illegal. Killing with Keystrokes, a report published by the IFAW, found that the global capabilities of the Internet are enabling both sellers and purchasers of rare species to reach and connect with each other quickly and easily. Prior to the release of the report, Ebay banned the sale of elephant ivory on its website. Ebay did not mention the report when the ban was announced – and did not confirm that the ban was related to the IFAW report.
The United States was found to have the greatest number of live animal advertisements: 1034. Russia had a greater list of different species among which were an ocelot, a bonobo, two different breeds of tigers and a crocodile.
Earlier this year, the International Fund for Animal Welfare conducted six one-week observations, in which it discovered 1400 live, exotic animals being traded on the web. IFAW shared the data with Wired and stated that the majority of the ads were for birds. However, 13 primates, two rhinos, and five large cats were offered for sale or for trade just in the U.S.
Barbara Cartwright, who is in charge of a program to restrict Internet trade of wildlife at the IFAW, said that the organization feels that a lot of the advertisements online actually result in transactions made offline that cannot be tracked. "If I put up an ad for a chimpanzee, you call me, and then we can talk about what I really have," Cartwright told Wired, describing a possible offline networking scenario between illegal animal traders.
Trading of endangered animals is generally illegal. Killing with Keystrokes, a report published by the IFAW, found that the global capabilities of the Internet are enabling both sellers and purchasers of rare species to reach and connect with each other quickly and easily. Prior to the release of the report, Ebay banned the sale of elephant ivory on its website. Ebay did not mention the report when the ban was announced – and did not confirm that the ban was related to the IFAW report.
The United States was found to have the greatest number of live animal advertisements: 1034. Russia had a greater list of different species among which were an ocelot, a bonobo, two different breeds of tigers and a crocodile.