I received an interesting spam message today (it should be noted that I consider any e-mail advertisement from an organization that I do not have some kind of a relationship with to be spam). If I buy something from a company or register on their websites, then I am fair game (unless I specify otherwise :). Anyway, it was an ad for a new auction website for the buying, selling and trading of animals and animal related products. I would provide a link, but I don't want to inadvertently provide additional advertisement. If you want to know the details contact me separately.

I can't quite put my finger on what bothers me about it, but their tag line "your animal marketplace" just seems crass.

I did not see any signs of protected species on the site, and I am assuming they will not allow that sort of thing. Seems like most of the listings at the moment are fairly common pets (dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds, etc). But they do have an exotics section that concerns me. There were no live animals listed yet, but they do have categories for giraffes, lions, tigers and even gorillas. I'm guessing that last one at least is illegal. I that of at least a few gorilla species that are on the CITES red list. And people pretty much just don't have any business owning giraffes, lions or tigers! What's the point of taking these animals out of their natural habitats (or what's left of them)?

I am guessing that the site will be just a drop in the bucket of the global exotic pet trade that is wiping out biodiversity all over the planet. But we certainly do not need any new efforts to create a market for exotic animals. The aquarium fish trade alone is single-handedly responsible for destroying the diversity on reefs around the Big Island of Hawaii.

Oh well, just meant to report. I was not intending to get in to a rant. So I'll stop here...