eBay sells prohibited items made from endangered species

August 3, 2025 • 8:53 am

I am reporting this here simply to show that eBay is selling cowboy boots made from sea turtle, which is a prohibited item made from endangered species skins. I keep reporting these items to eBay, and they keep saying they have decided they are okay. (Sellers often disguise sea turtle as “sea alligator” or “sea turtle print,” but I know sea turtle when I see it, having looked at several of these boots over the years (needless to say, I don’t own any).  Here are two of my reports to eBay which were rejected. I tweet them to both @eBay and @askeBay.

And their decision? SELLING SEA TURTLE IS OKAY!:

Here was their response to the boots above, which were guaranteed to be sea turtle and in fact labeled as such:

eBay used to accept my complaints and take these items off sale, but now they simply sell them. I guess that, for them, the lure of their cut is greater than their care for endangered species.  I do not know how to proceed further except to complain to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which I’ve done without results.  So I’m putting up this post just to complain that eBay is violating the law by selling prohibited items, and that those items are made from endangered species.

Here is the law regarding the sale of sea turtle leather, taken from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

11 thoughts on “eBay sells prohibited items made from endangered species”

  2. I’m sending this to Don McLeish (Maui), who works with MO__ and has helped save turtles and others as a volunteer.

  3. This is very disturbing. It looks like your complaints aren’t getting to the higher-ups in eBay. Maybe a sting operation would be possible by some law enforcement agency like the USFWS

  4. I’ve seen you rail about this on X, PCC(E). Good job.

    Patrolling commerce sites – particularly ebay say – is very difficult. In fact one of the various reasons why we imprison our toothpaste in NYC drugstores behind plexiglass is that places like ebay provide a secondary market for stolen goods. This is downstream of lefty “be kind of criminals” legal bs. (I say this as a former defense attorney, practicing before everything went to shit).

    THe economics of shoplifting don’t work without the scale of online marketplaces.
    I’m told facebook marketplace is even worse but I’ve never seen it.

    Keep up the good work,

    D.A.
    NYC

  5. Report them to NOAA Fisheries for ESA and CITES violations, and perhaps also under the Lacy Act, if they are transported across state boundaries.

  6. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is the primary agency responsible for enforcing CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in the United States. Specifically, the USFWS’s Office of Law Enforcement plays a key role in investigating and prosecuting violations of CITES regulations.
    While CITES is a global treaty, its enforcement is largely carried out by national authorities within each participating country. In the US, the USFWS, through its International Affairs program and the Office of Law Enforcement, works to ensure that international trade in endangered species is legal, traceable, and biologically sustainable. They coordinate with other agencies like NOAA Fisheries (for marine species) and work with international partners to combat wildlife trafficking. https://www.fws.gov/international-affairs/cites

  7. Reported item to eBay probably won’t work but maybe if everyone reports it will annoy them.

  9. It is a complex market. There are BIG legal layers for a reason.

    And certainly not one for such a generic system as eBay.

Comments are closed.