I’ve taken at least at least one cheap shot at animal rights activists on this blog, since I believe that they often come down on the wrong side of issues for failing to look at the bigger ecological picture, but I wanted to draw attention to an issue on which we agree wholeheartedly:

An International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) probe found 9,000 live animals or products for sale in one week on trading sites like eBay.

[...]

During a three month investigation, Ifaw found some of the world's most endangered species for sale online – almost all being traded illegally.

The article goes on to explain ways that governments are already trying to deal with the problem, which makes the problem seem all the worse to me – if we’re already doing all we’re willing to in order to stem the trade of threatened and endangered species and there are 9,000 violations in a single week, then what hope is there that we can actually bring the trade to a halt?

Also of note: Britain has a Biodiversity minister?!? Why don't we Americans get us one of those?