Animal cruelty is a neglected topic in the world. Every human being has caused harm to animals directly or indirectly. If not for food, then for fashion, cosmetics or medicines, we have used products that have been prepared by killing, harming or testing on the animals. During such hard times for wildlife, Amazon India has taken an action to show that it indeed cares and will make amends to its company policies.
Amazon India sold wildlife killing devices and various protected wildlife species on their website. In a country where hunting is illegal, this triggered a public outrage when noticed. Wildlife SOS decided to take an action against this by circulating a petition to ask Amazon to remove these products. When the petition signed by over 10,000 people gained the attention of the company, it removed all the lethal items as well as the poached animal bodies which were pointed out by Wildlife SOS. Apart from this, Amazon also pledged to support wildlife conservation efforts.
The move is certainly applaud-worthy. However, the matter of concern is, that this pledge has been made only by Amazon India, and not the company as a whole. The traps and snares that inflict pain and suffering to the wild animals in India also wreak havoc in other countries. Thus, most of the items available for purchase in India are also available in other countries. This makes it easy for anyone to order the things they need from a foreign country.
The step taken by Amazon India can be influenced because of the illegal status of hunting in the country. However, if the E-commerce giant really cares about the wildlife, it needs to take a step at a global level, which will influence many other companies to step up and work towards wildlife conservation and animal welfare.
