What's At Stake?
Tell eBay to Stop Allowing the Sale of Dog Fur, Live Dogs and Cats, in China
Actual animals for sale on eBay China: Cramped conditions, rusty cages, and dangerously sharp wires have eBay's stamp of approval.
Animal Suffering Ignored by eBay
For nearly four years, PETA has attempted to have a dialogue with eBay, Inc., officials about the company's permissive policies on the auctioning of live animals, animal parts, and various other animal-related items. Most recently, in light of news reports, photos of dogs and cats beaten to death and buried alive because of a rabies scare and and video footage of animals being tortured and killed in terrible ways for their fur and their flesh, PETA called on eBay to immediately disallow the sale of dogs and cats on its Chinese platform, eBay China.
It would be easy for eBay to do the right thing: implement and enforce reasonable policies that prohibit the sale of live animals and items that have clearly caused animals to suffer. Despite overwhelming evidence that dogs and cats in China are in real and immediate danger whether they are "pets" or used for fur or meat, the online mogul has refused to take the tiny step of disallowing their sale.
Click here and here to see some of the dog fur items available for sale on eBay China!
Illegal by American Standards
China's long history of animal abuse was back in the spotlight earlier this year as every dog in sight in certain areas was indiscriminately massacred—a total of more than 50,000, and many right in front of their families.
This and other atrocities—such as skinning conscious dogs and cats for their fur, which is then exported to the West—is legal and accepted in China because it has no animal protection laws. In the U.S., however, dog and cat fur is prohibited by federal law, as is keeping dogs and cats in conditions such as those shown on the pages of some eBay sellers.
China's live-animal markets are also notoriously barbaric. Animals of all shapes and sizes—including cats and dogs—are crammed into wire cages in which they cannot move. Their slaughter is no less depraved. Living animals are routinely skinned and hacked apart, piece by piece.
Even eBay sellers' own photos of animals for sale show conditions that one wouldn't wish on one's worst enemy, including chaining animals to cages on the streets, keeping puppies in wire-bottomed cages (in the U.S. such housing is prohibited by the federal Animal Welfare Act for humane reasons), keeping puppies in a rusty, barely lit cage with bone-dry empty bowls, and cramped, extremely crowded conditions.
Please e-mail eBay now.
http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/ebay_cats_dogs_china/explanation