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Good News! See Update Below...
Incredibly and sadly, 70% of pets are being bought online in Korea. Selling animals online is a disastrous situation and only exacerbates such problems as puppy mills. Animals are displayed, sold and delivered like disposable goods and at very low prices ($40 for a Schnauzer puppy and $160 for a Great Pyrenees).
KARA has been targeting 2 major online stores to ask them to stop selling companion animals--11St and Auction.
We sent official documents to the government and to the Internet shopping malls in protest. And we met with some offending companies to ask them to stop advertising, selling, and delivering puppies via the Internet.
KARA visited 11St several times and explained about stray animals and cruelty to animals in Korea. Although the company has yet to reached a conclusion to completely ban sales of companion animals and stop individual companies' advertisements, they were receptive to what KARA had to say and promised to keep talking to us and to pay attention to issues related to companion animals. Well done to 11St!
Another of the offending stores is eBay Korea, going by the name of Auction. It is the biggest Internet mall in Korea and is selling puppies on a large scale. But since its pet selling is not regulated by the current laws of Korea, it said it has no intention of stopping or revising sales of pets such as puppies.
So KARA sent a letter to eBay, Inc. in the US, the parent company of Auction.
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We have received complaints from concerned Korean citizens that eBay Korea (“Auction," CEO: Ju-man Park, http://www.auction.co.kr/default.html) is listing and selling very young puppies for companion animals (Please check this example site for sales of companion animals:http://listings.auction.co.kr/Category/List.aspx?category=33080100).
Based on your corporate policies, pets and other animals are not allowed to be listed and sold (http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/wildlife.html).
Although there are currently no specific laws prohibiting display, advertisement, sales, and delivery of companion animals via the Internet in Korea, it is our firm belief that this type of trade is detrimental to enhancing our respect for animals and their rights and welfare. Furthermore, based on Auction’s Corporate Stipulation, the company may restrict or ban selling certain types of products in the event that a certain trade may involve ethical or social problems.
In addition to this, Korea’s current Animal Protection Law requires all the sellers to be properly registered and comply with animal welfare guidelines. Based on our investigation and interviews, we have found that many of these companies and individuals listed in your Korean subsidiary’s website do not comply with these basic laws and rules.
Also, our visits to some of the shops have revealed that these shops are displaying very young animals (45 days old or younger while Korea’s law requires puppies to be at least 2 months old to be sold) in very poor conditions. The trade involves unnecessary suffering and death of animals in the process of delivery, return, and refunds (up to 5 times of delivery via cheap and poor transportation facilities that may endanger their lives and safety.) We believe that this type of trade works to mass-produce stray animals as the sellers and purchasers are not fully aware of the responsible pet ownership in Korea and may generate cruelty to animals as the identity of purchasers and sellers cannot be fully monitored based on Korea’s still poor animal welfare institutions.
It is to be noticed that eBay’s Korean subsidiary is most actively promoting this trade among other large Internet shopping malls in Korea and we have decided to consistently raise this issue both nationally and internationally until this issue is resolved in good faith for the promotion of respect for life and protection of humanity.
We are currently asking the government and related institutions in Korea not to allow display, advertisement, sales, and delivery of companion animals via the Internet and the efforts are and will be vigorous. We are also planning to work together with prominent consumers’ groups to make this concern shared farther and wider.
While we are working to ban sales of animals via the Internet, please share this concern and help your Korean subsidiary to stop this unethical and unnecessarily painful trade. This will enhance the awareness that you take your corporate responsibilities seriously and take every effort to conduct business in an ethical and risk-free manner.
We urge you not to wait until the local legislation reaches its most desirable status for animals and citizens. As global and responsible citizens and consumers, we urge you to immediately stop this improper and unethical trade of young animals in the name of your company in Korea.
We will provide all the necessary information on your request and share Korean citizens’ concerns to resolve this problem. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely yours,
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This letter was met with silence--no reply whatsoever.
KARA will continue to do what it can to stop Auction trying to gain profits based on poor local legislation. We have received petitions from citizens and are seeing good responses from people against the online selling and exploitation of companion animals.
In addition, KARA visited and investigated dog-meat sales sources/companies that are advertising and selling dog meat via the Internet. We will take every necessary to stop this expansion of the dog-meat industry through online advertisement and sales.
Update, March 8, 2011
We are happy to report that auction.co.kr is no longer selling pets online!
This comes after WSPA held discussions with eBay in the US. You can read the great news here, on WSPA's website.
Here is an excerpt:
eBay immediately reviewed the issue and made the decision to change its policy in Korea and prohibit pet sales on the site, as is the policy for eBay.com. eBay then notified sellers in Korea of the elimination of the pet animal category and gave them a grace period of approximately one month to voluntarily delist any existing postings, after which eBay removed the postings. Additionally, eBay is putting monitoring efforts in place to detect and delist future attempts to post pet listings.
“We applaud KARA for uncovering this issue and thank eBay for its swift action in working with us to address our concerns,” says Silia Smith, WSPA’s Interim U.S. Executive Director. “Working together, we were able to make a significant change for many animals in need, and help progress global animal welfare.”
However, there is a remaining problem in the sponsor links on the auction.co.kr site link to online pet sellers. This is also true of other online stores. When questioned about this auction.co.kr said that it has no control over the sponsored links because these are supplied under contract by another company. Nothing can be done about it until the contract expires.
KARA will continue monitoring the sponsered links issue and hopefully get any pet selling links removed.
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