Written by Stephen Messenger
On Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, even shoppers with the most obscure tastes can find just about anything their heart desires — including those with a hankering to eat beloved, ocean faring mammals. Ocean advocates are calling for the internet giant to halt the sale of illegal animal products following a report which revealed that whale meat was being openly sold on Amazon Japan’s online marketplace.
According to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a variety of whale, dolphin and porpoise products were found to be freely available for purchase on Amazon Inc.’s wholly owned subsidiarity site Amazon Japan. Among the 147 cetacean-based items for sale on Amazon during the agency’s investigation were a variety of whale jerky, whale stews, and canned whale meat products — some of which contained the flesh of species listed as endangered.
Given the international moratorium on the cruel practice of whaling, as well as the general decline in popularity of whale meat even in parts of the world where consuming it was considered tradition, conservationists are calling for the online megastore to those items from its digital shelves.
“Amazon.com has a clear policy of banning trade in endangered and threatened species but is turning a blind eye to commercial trade in whale products from endangered and threatened whales on its Japanese website,” says Environmental Investigation Agency president Allan Thornton. “We are appealing to Jeff Bezos and Amazon to ensure that Amazon’s ban includes all trade in products from whales, dolphins and porpoises across all of Amazon’s websites.”
In hopes of sending their message home, EAI has released a 50-second advert replete with graphic imagery which highlights the serious cruelty associated with the whale meat trade:
This post was originally published by TreeHugger.
UPDATE (12:13am PST): As of a couple hours ago, Amazon has removed this product from it’s website.
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Help Shut Down World’s Smallest Dolphin Tank
Tsunami Recovery Funds Subsidize Japanese Whale Hunt
Bearing Witness to the Murder of Dolphins
Read more: Amazon.com, japan, treehugger, whale meat, whales
Photo from aSIMULAtor via flickr
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OF COURSE it should be illegal? Why would anyone doubt it?
Gladly voted.
That was a sad story i bet he thinks he is big mighty hunter, I like it if he was punished to the full…
141 comments
+ add your ownWhales need protection not for consumption.
So heart rendering the way Japan uses lies to KILL WHALES one of our Earth's most gentle living, breathing creations EVEN today
Thanks for posting!
SHAME on you Amazon.com!!!!
Thank for the article and the video.
Shame on you, Amazon.com
Cori J. they found a loophole
stop the killing of whales those men are sick
I thought Japan said they caught whales for research. I was always taught you don't eat you research.
Thanks for the article.
Colum N.
oh come on. don't act like you won't jump though flaming hoops to save some hate pages on FB.
if it's something like "I hate fur wearers" or "kill all hunters" someone will be fighting to save that page
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