Conservationist groups are pushing Google to take down 10,000-plus advertisements on its Internet search sites that tout products made from whales and elephants.
“Google has laudable policies that prohibit the promotion of endangered wildlife products including whale, dolphin and elephant ivory, but sadly these are not being enforced and that’s devastating for whales and elephants,” said Allan Thornton, president of the Environmental Investigation Agency in an Agence France-Presse report. But “it is shocking to discover that Google, with the massive resources it has at its disposal, is failing to enforce its own policies.”
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Energy and Environment
The group said it had appealed to Google CEO Larry Page to remove more than 1,400 objectionable ads for whale products and 10,000 ads for elephant ivory products. The products are advertised primarily on Japanese shopping sites supported by Google, AFP says.
Google, meanwhile, says it already does keep out ads that use products from threatened species.
“As soon as we detect [them], we remove them,” a Google spokesman said in AFP’s report.
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Cheryl Chumley is a continuous news writer for The Washington Times. Previously, she was part of the start-up team for The Washington Times’ digital aggregation product, Times247. She’s also a 2008-2009 Robert Novak journalism fellow with The Phillips Foundation. She can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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