Any person, animal lover or not, must be angered and moved to action with the news and images of the dog fighting ring that Quarterback Michael Vick was involved with. Hundreds of thousands of animals are "adopted" every year for the sole purposes of using them to kill other animals or to be killed in the animal fighting industry. Nike’s decision to discontinue their contract with Michael Vick and the NFL’s continued actions against the player show how serious this offense is to their bottom line; they are willing to cut ties with a premium player to save face with the millions of animal supporters outraged by his actions. Surprisingly, there is one major company that has yet to understand the seriousness in supporting animal fighting and refuses to discontinue their role in this horrible industry; amazon.com.Dear Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder & CEO;
Amazon.com has been asked repeatedly over the course of the past few years to remove the publications supporting the animal fighting industry. Not only have they refused to do so, but they are looking to challenge laws limiting these publications as violations of the first amendment. Exceptions to the first amendment include stipulations against obscenity, to which many would argue that these horrific publications disgusting and obscene. Additionally, exceptions include “speech” that threatens the lives of people. While it is hard for some to embrace the establishment of laws to protect animals from being threatened, there is no argument that animal fighting and the support of these acts hurt humans as well through introducing dangerous animals into our society.
The following letter is one I wrote to the CEO of amazon.com. For those who believe it is morally and ethically unjust to support the sale of these publications aimed at promoting the animal fighting industry can join the letter writing campaign against amazon.com. Either cut and paste the following letter, or write one of your own, and mail it to amazon.com customer service, through the American Humane Society at the following link, or directly to Amazon at 1516 2nd Ave., Seattle, WA 98101.
Michael Vick’s career as an NFL Quarterback is over due to his involvement in an animal fighting ring. This should be a wake up call to all engaged in the support and promotion of these cruel and horrific acts against animals; the American public is not going to tolerate any person or company associated with torturing animals. The backlash against animal fighting and cruelty is not just directed at those running these fights, it also includes those who sell books and magazines aimed at promoting animal fighting, which includes amazon.com
I was disgusted to discover that amazon.com continues to sell publications that promote and support animal fighting, a practice that not only hurts and kills hundreds of thousands of animals but also puts adults and children at risk of attack through the presence of dangerous animals in our society and the crime that is associated with the industry. Despite repeated pleas from the American Humane Society to stop selling these magazines and books, amazon.com continues to support animal torture by not complying with federal laws banning the sale of these publications.
If a plea by the American Humane Society and threats of lawsuits for violating federal laws prohibiting the sale and distribution of materials aimed at promoting animal fighting is not enough, perhaps it is time for your customers to send an even louder message and stop purchasing from Amazon until these publications are pulled from your virtual shelves. Your online audience is your lifeline, and as this same audience learns of the support you lend to the animal fighting industry by continuing to sell these barbaric publications, your sales will surly start to plummet.
There is no First Amendment right to sell publications promoting and soliciting the purchase of fighting animals and weapons. These publications are as morally reprehensible as child pornography and selling them makes you no better then those actually engaging in torturing these animals. I urge you to not only comply with federal law, but to do the morally and ethically right thing by pulling animal fighting publications from your sales line. The community of animal supporters and the survivors of animal attacks are dedicated to stopping this practice by boycotting amazon.com. Certainly losing sales to this group will hurt your bottom-line much more then pulling animal fighting publications from your virtual shelves.
Sincerely,
7 comments:
I can't believe they would sell those books! I mean, if they were selling books called, "Start your own meth lab right at home," they'd get in big trouble, right? So why is it fine for them to sell books about fighting animals? Disgusting. :( Thanks for posting this!
And what is more disgusting is the response I received from Amazon.com...
Thank you for writing to Amazon.com with your comments.
We have great respect for your concerns. One of our goals as an online
retailer, however, is to offer our customers the ability to purchase a
wide variety of products on our site. It is unfortunate but inevitable
that some of our customers may find a few of these items
objectionable.
We always value customer feedback, and we have passed along your desire
that we exclude items of this sort from our site. Thank you again for
taking the time to contact us at Amazon.com.
I think there is a fine line between freedom of speech, and making money out of selling on a book for a subject that is clearly abhorrent. Looks like I'm boycotting Amazon.com...
Until laws are changed, I believe Amazon.com does have the legal right to sell these items. However, just because they have the "right" to sell something, does not mean they are obligated to do so. I completely agree that they should choose not to sell these items.
Also, I have discovered that anytime you submit a letter via the web to a large corporation be prepared to be completely insulted with their response. I've had similiar experiences with wamu.com, nwa.com, sprintpcs.com just to name a few.
Props for putting the word out Chelle. I'll be adding that to the list of boycotted companies. You can always shop at Powell's for books at least. Great great company.
And I'm in total agreement with Wade... I hesitate that books (or other products)should be banned outright, but companies should show some courage and moral leadership and choose NOT to sell products that are clearly meant to harm, degrade, and are just repugnant.
Ali, you should post your full ban list. Per your blog, I will stop shopping at circuit city..
Call Amazon at 206-266-1000 or 866-216-1072 and ask for customer service. Request that Amazon.com stop selling animal fighting materials.
From the Humane Society of the United States:
Amazon sells both cockfighting magazines and bloody, graphic dogfighting DVDs. The company is so determined to continue selling these materials that it filed a motion against The HSUS in federal court, essentially asking that federal and state laws to protect animals be gutted to accommodate Amazon's sales of animal fighting paraphernalia! Amazon.com is now the only online retailer selling these graphic materials.
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