A chance discovery and rescue of wild sloth bear cub that had lost a limb and her mother to a snare by Wildlife SOS led to a sustained campaign against the sale of such gadgets by Amazon.
A signature campaign was started which gathered 9000 signatures from animal rights activists across the globe. The efforts eventually bore fruit and Amazon has agreed to remove snares and traps from its website.
Wildlife SOS started the petition campaign urging the online retail giant to stop selling snares, traps, wildlife specimens and wild animal products on compassionate grounds. Amazon has taken note of the concerns and has given a written confirmation to Wildlife SOS to remove all such items from its inventory.
In a statement by the Legal Director, Associate General Counsel, Amazon India, the company said that it respects the efforts taken by Wildlife SOS to fight illegal wildlife trafficking. As per the request by Wildlife SOS, it has decided to pull out 296 items that were listed in the ‘animal specimen’ category and also 104 items designated as ‘snares and traps.’
Wildlife SOS said it found wildlife trophies which included alligator heads, rare seashells, starfish, snakes and reptiles, sea horses and tarantula spiders along with some cruel trapping gadgets like snares and leg hold traps.
The Wildlife SOS headquarters in New Delhi were visited by two senior officials from Amazon India and were shown a presentation which highlighted the fact that snares and traps can maim, and kill wild animals.
The team from Amazon was moved when shown the picture of the Sloth bear which had lost its leg and mother to snares sold by Amazon. The officials immediately agreed to take down these gadgets from Amazon’s inventory and also sought help from Wildlife SOS in this task.
