BUsiness of Animal Welfare
Exposed: EBay Is Trafficking in Cockfighting Weapons
Center for a Humane Economy demands online marketplace stop trafficking in deadly, illicit implements
By Staff Writers
At the height of the holiday shopping season, an investigation by the Center for a Humane Economy has found that eBay is openly hosting illegal cockfighting weapons and animal-fighting equipment, violating federal law and its own platform policies.
The illicit trade supplies equipment to participants who torture and kill millions of animals at clandestine fighting derbies and who leave a larger wake of crime and violence in our communities.
After a prior investigation by the Center and repeated requests by our team to remedy the illegal conduct, Etsy recently removed numerous listings for cockfighting knives and gaffs—razor-sharp weapons strapped to the legs of fighting birds—from its online sales platform. Under 7 U.S.C. § 2156, it is a federal felony to possess or traffic knives or gaffs designed for the singular purposes of enhancing injurious or lethal combat in staged fights.
But eBay’s commerce in cockfighting contraband dwarfs that of Etsy, and the Center renewed its call to company executives to comply with the law and its own company policies and take down this commercial contraband. The larger e-commerce company continues to host sellers openly trafficking in gaffs and knives and who post in coded marketing language, describing the weapons as “collectibles” or even as “paperweights,” that purchasers know is a masquerade.
There may be as many as 20 million fighting birds in the United States, and just about every one of these birds conscripted into staged fights is equipped with knives or curved icepicks on their legs to enhance the bloodletting.
“Allowing these items to be sold on a mainstream e-commerce platform undermines the legal strictures Congress and California state lawmakers imposed to stop this malicious cruelty to animals,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy.
Congress outlawed any possession or sale of cockfighting implements in 2007 and imposed felony-level penalties for the crime.
Allowing these items to be sold on a mainstream e-commerce platform undermines the legal strictures Congress and California state lawmakers imposed to stop this malicious cruelty to animals.
— Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy
Why Illegal Cockfighting Listings Keep Reappearing on eBay
Investigators say that while some eBay listings are blatant, many sellers attempt to evade detection by using euphemisms, omitting the term “cockfighting,” or categorizing the weapons under unrelated product headings. Some vendors even appear to relist items repeatedly under new descriptions after earlier takedowns—mirroring a cat-and-mouse pattern previously documented on Etsy.
“We’ve filed a series of complaints with eBay, and some individual posts have come down,” said Kevin Chambers, an investigator with Animal Wellness Action. “But the removals are inconsistent, and the overall volume of listings suggests the company is not using even basic screening tools to identify contraband. You shouldn’t be able to buy a cockfighting gaff with the same ease you buy a toaster.”
The push to shut down online trafficking of cockfighting paraphernalia comes amid an unprecedented surge of support from federal, state, and local law-enforcement leaders who have urged Congress to strengthen animal-fighting statutes. The National Sheriffs’ Association, the National District Attorneys Association, the Major County Sheriffs of America, and 38 state sheriffs’ associations and prosecutors’ associations have endorsed the FIGHT Act to further strengthen enforcement tools to rid society of staged animal fighting enterprises. That groundswell, Center officials say, underscores that law enforcement understands the criminal nature of cockfighting and its menace to civil society.
“The message we’re getting from sheriffs, police chiefs, and federal agents is unmistakable—they want the tools to end animal fighting, not watch offenders exploit loopholes or lax oversight from multibillion-dollar online companies,” Pacelle said. “Platforms like eBay have a civic and legal responsibility not to abet violent crimes. This is not a trifling matter, but a rotten activity tied to a wide range of crimes that degrade the safety of our communities.”
The Center notes that eBay’s own rules prohibit the sale of weapons linked to illegal activity. But unlike Etsy, which removed listings en masse after public exposure, eBay has not undertaken a platform-wide purge, relying instead on isolated takedowns that are followed by new postings for cockfighting commerce.
Advocates argue that the platform already has the software tools to screen for prohibited items—and that failing to do so provides cover for illegal cockfighting networks in the United States and abroad. “Online marketplaces know that monitoring contraband is core to the integrity of their business model,” Chambers said. “If they can detect counterfeit sneakers, they can detect cockfighting gaffs.”
Next Steps
The Center and Animal Wellness Action are preparing additional evidence packages for enforcement agencies and will continue monitoring eBay for illegal listings. The organizations are urging eBay’s leadership to conduct an immediate, comprehensive sweep of its platform and implement proactive filters to prevent relisting of items promoting cruelty to animals.
“Stopping the sale of these weapons is not complicated,” Pacelle added. “It can be done by close of business today, if the company has resolute and aware leaders.” With the step-up in holiday shopping starting on Black Friday and continuing in earnest on Cyber Monday, consumers should think twice about using a platform so inattentive to animal cruelty and illegal commerce.”
