International Fund for Animal Welfare of Washington, D.C., is urging eBay to ban—not simply restrict—all such sales on its Web market.

An animal welfare group charges that eBay sales of ivory are brisker than ever a year after the online marketplace promised to restrict the sale of products made from animal teeth and tusks—many of which come from endangered species.

EBay spokeswoman Kim Rubey says the company is trying to get a handle on the problem, but acknowledged that it can be difficult because of the large volume of daily transactions flowing over eBay.com.

She admits that the company does not inspect ivory sold via its site to ensure that it was harvested prior to the CITES ban.

It does, however, look for ivory listings that offer to ship internationally (a CITES violation) and will either remove the listings or notify local or national law enforcement (such as Fish and Wildlife in the U.S.), depending on the situation, Rubey says.

EBay to some degree puts the onus on the sellers to police themselves, explicitly stating on its site that: “By listing your ivory item on eBay, you are certifying that you legally possess the item and are legally able to sell it in the United States.”

A basic search today of “elephant ivory” on eBay turned up 306 such trinkets for sale. Some of the online peddlers claim in their online advertisements the ivory they’re selling is “antique,” meaning it is more than 100 years old and therefore not subject to the ban; others with newer ivory items say they obtained them before the 1989 ban took effect, although many do not offer proof of these claims.

Source: Scientific American