The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW- www.ifaw.org) and Taobao (www.taobao.com.cn), China’s largest internet auction site, jointly announced a series of online activities to counter illegal wildlife trade on the Internet. The rise of the Internet is contributing to the rapid growth of illegal trade in wildlife, which is having a devastating effect on animals and ecosystems. Fast, convenient and anonymous, trading of wildlife on the Internet is posing a major challenge to wildlife conservation and law enforcement.
According to a recently published report by IFAW, Killing with Keystrokes: An Investigation of the Illegal Wildlife Trade on the World Wide Web, Internet trade in wildlife poses a significant and immediate threat to the survival of many endangered species. The report, which followed a six-week investigation that tracked more than 7,000 wildlife product listings on 183 Web sites in 11 countries, found that elephant ivory dominated the trade, comprising 73% of all product listings tracked. Exotic birds were second, accounting for nearly 20% of the listings tracked. Primates, big cats and other animals are also falling victim to the e-trade in live animals and wildlife products, according to the report.
– more at prnewswire 20 Nov 2008
More strict rule are needed to stop this trade.