Japanese businesses trading in cetacean products are feeling the pinch in the wake of Rakuten’s decision to end whale and dolphin meat sales following EIA’s Blood e-Commerce exposé
Internet retail giant Rakuten did the right thing by banning adverts for whales and dolphin products shortly after the release of our report but the company is still carrying ads for elephant ivory products, many originating from illegal ivory poached in Africa, and we need your renewed help to urge it to stop
Japan’s scientific whaling in the Antarctic does not comply with the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) that govern such whaling (it is therefore illegal). JARPA II, the biggest wildlife science fraud ever, is effectively over
Internet retail giant Rakuten is terminating sales of whale products through its Japanese marketplace Rakuten Ichiba and has given merchants 30 days to remove them. The move came after EIA launched the report Blood e-Commerce, exposing Rakuten as the world’s biggest online marketplace for ivory and whale meat products
Consumers are urged to protest directly to internet retailing giant Rakuten and via its social media over its sales of elephant ivory and whale products, citing Japan’s failure to properly manage its domestic ivory trade and whale products originating from protected species or with dangerously high levels of toxins
The report “Blood e-Commerce: Rakuten’s profits from the slaughter of elephants and whales” – released by the EIA in conjunction with Humane Society International (HSI) – reveals that the company’s Japanese website carries more than 28,000 ads for elephant ivory products and some 1,200 whale meat products ads