Etsy.com selling illegal animal parts!
The campaign to Etsy started when I found a real snow leopard fur listed by a seller earlier in the week. The Snow Leopard Trust kindly stepped in with a Petition asking Etsy to stop listing endangered animal fur for social responsibility reasons. The story however has now gotten much bigger.
Please read the updated Petition information and sign the petition today. SIGN
[Update, 5/31: As we’ve (the Snow Leopard Trust) learned from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services, it is not only illegal to sell any products made from endangered animals, including “vintage” items, to a buyer in another state, it’s also prohibited under the Endangered Species Act to offer such products for sale in another state, including on a website like Etsy.
Etsy should not allow any products made with parts of endangered animals to be listed on their site, regardless of their age.
Etsy’s existing policies ban “illegal animal products” from their site. However, they don’t provide any details on what this entails. As they are offered for sale across state lines, many of the so-called “pre-ban” items made with parts of endangered animals currently for sale on Etsy appear to be listed illegally. Others, in particular the hundreds of items containing ivory, may or may not be illegal, depending on their provenance. As it is often difficult for sellers or buyers to assess where a particular item is from and when it was made, it’s next to impossible to determine if it can be legally sold even within the borders of a state.
Etsy’s lack of a clear policy prohibiting ALL products made with parts of endangered animals not only leaves the site vulnerable to being exploited as an outlet for illegally poached products from endangered animals, it also puts sellers and buyers at risk, potentially leaving them open to legal repercussions.
Sign the petition here – SIGN
{ 0 comments… add one }