Wildlife caught in Web of Internet sales

WASHINGTON: The wildlife poacher has a new ally: the Internet, say activists who plan to tame this illegal trade in live animals and the remains of their slaughter, such as ivory, skins and tusks.

"Illegal trade has increased exponentially because of the ease of selling by Internet," said Lynne Levine, a spokeswoman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare(IFAW).

Her group began a letter-writing campaign to eBay in European countries asking the Internet auction sites to reject sales of animals taken in the wild or any of their parts, whether made into footstools, chess sets, pens or other ornaments, especially rhinoceros horns and ivory.

"A huge portion of the illegal items traded over the Internet is ivory products," Michael Wamithi, a Kenyan elephant programme manager.

"The impact of Internet sales is most definitely felt on the ground in elephant country," he testified before the US Congress.

Wamithi came from Nairobi to lobby Washington in favour of stanching Internet trade in ivory and all illegal takings, which gets an international hearing next month.

The Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is an international treaty of 171 countries that will meet in June.

Then, Germany, representing the European Union, will promote the idea policing the Internet, where the remains of endangered species, such as tigers and sharks are sold as poultices of no medical value.

Twenty-six tonnes of ivory was seized around the world in the past 18 months, Levine said. "We believe that is 10 per cent of trade."