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Singapore. Illegal wildlife traders are turning to the Internet to reach a wider customer base, circumvent laws and evade authorities, animal rights activists say.

Items such as rhinoceros horns, leopard pelts and even live tiger cubs are being hawked openly on public Web sites, according to Grace Ge, Asian regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The Internet offers anonymity for the seller as well as fast and untraceable sales, while inadequate legislation governing online companies ensures relative impunity, she said at a regional animal rights conference held in Singapore on Sunday.

“The Internet has facilitated the trading of wildlife, which is having a devastating effect on animals and ecosystems worldwide,” she said.

Through the Internet, traders are able to “circumvent rules, regulations and evade enforcement,” Ge told delegates at the Asia for Animals 2010 conference.

Citing an IFAW study on the illegal online wildlife trade in 2008, Ge said there was a “huge volume of wildlife and their products traded online on a daily basis.”

The research was conducted over three months in 2008 in 11 countries, including the United States, China and several European nations. It found 7,122 advertisements selling endangered species or products derived from their slaughter.

The United States was a major culprit as the source of 70.5 percent of advertisements, followed by Britain and China with 7.7 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively, the study showed.

Estimates of the value of final sales on these Web sites totalled more than $457,000, but the actual amount was likely to be higher as most sites did not advertise their prices, according to the study.

Animal rights activists said at the conference that cooperation rather than conflict with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioners was more effective in protecting wildlife.

Louis Ng, executive director of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society, said the previous approach of confrontation had not been effective.

“We realized we had to work with” the TCM industry, he said.

He cited a joint initiative between ACRES and Singapore an TCM practitioners in which they created a labeling scheme to discourage local TCM shops from selling products made from endangered animal species.

To date, he said, more than 20 percent of all TCM shops in Singapore are adhering to the voluntary initiative.

Jill Robinson, executive director of animal welfare group Animals Asia Foundation, said TCM practitioners were more than willing to cooperate with activists.

“I think they are recognizing that the use of animals is causing such a slight and such a bad reputation,” she said. “They actually don’t want to see this happening anymore.”

TCM shops sell products from animals such as bears and tigers.



Agence France-Presse