Environmentalists Accuse Google of Promoting Ivory Ads in Japan

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has accused Internet giant Google for promoting thousands of ads on a Japanese shopping site. According to the environmentalists, these ads promote the sale of products that are made from endangered whale and elephant species.

The environmentalists sent an appeal to Larry Page, CEO of Google, Feb. 22, 2013, demanding an immediate action in this case. They requested that Google remove the 1,400 ads from the shopping sites that promote whale products, and about 10,000 ads that promote the products made of elephant's ivory, according to a news release.

Nearly 80 percent of the elephant ads are made for 'hanko' (seals used to affix signatures to documents). The increase in hanko sales increased the demand for elephant ivory. Other products promoted are sperm, pilot whales, Bryde's, sei, and minke.

According to the environmentalists, the ads put on Japan's various shopping sites clearly reveal that Google has failed to enforce its own policies. The agency never received a response from Google, and can still see the ads on the sites promoting the sale of elephant and whale products.

EIA president Allan Thornton stated, "While elephants are being mass slaughtered across Africa to produce ivory trinkets, it is shocking to discover that Google, with the massive resources it has at its disposal, is failing to enforce its own policies designed to help protect endangered elephants and whales."

Japan is one of the largest consumers of elephant ivory and demand from Japan and China has fuelled intensified poaching. A recent finding published in the journal PLoS ONE which was conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society and several other conservation groups found out that nearly 62 percent of the total elephant population fell between 2002 and 2011.