It seems that the criminals behind the minke whale’s near extinction have been caught.
Deep concern has been expressed by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Humane Society International (HIS) towards Softbank Corporation’s continued advertisements of endangered animal products on Yahoo! Japan.
The two eco-enthusiast companies say that 80% of these Yahoo! Japan ads sell name seals (hanko) for stamping and signing of important documents. These hankos are made from illegally sourced ivory tusks that have been smuggled from Africa.
Kitty Block, HIS vice president, states, “Tens of thousands of elephants, whales and dolphins are being killed each year to supply demand for their parts. We urge SoftBank to end their role in this cruel and unnecessary slaughter.”
The Japanese firm is supporting the use of illegal products such as elephant ivory to produce consumer products through advertisement, which demonstrates the poor business ethics of the search engine. The important ethical issue that should be dealt with here is to eliminate the abuse of extinct species to attain resources.
I believe that by promoting such advertisements, Softbank risks developing external threats such as lost of loyal users.
Let’s just hope no whales were killed during the making of this blog post.
Sources:
http://www.eco-business.com/news/softbank-yahoo-japan-refuses-take-down-unethical-ads-selling-elephant-ivory-whale-products/