The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee Will Discontinue Its Association with Amazon.Com

Hohenwald, TN — June 13, 2007

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee will be discontinuing its association with Amazon.com as they have admitted in their reply to us that they will continue to sell animal fighting books and magazines. This will represent a significant loss of annual income to the Sanctuary, (last year over $10,000), but we will not support any association with animal abuse. As the nation's largest natural habitat refuge for elephants, we dedicate our lives to the well being of this species and the education of the human species. As caring individuals we are concerned for the well being of all species. This is not, as Amazon.com asserts, an issue of censorship but rather a violation of the Federal Animal Welfare Act, as excerpted in these paragraphs from the HSUS lawsuit:

Federal Animal Welfare Act
16. On May 3, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Federal Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act of 2007, H.R. 137/S. 261, Public Law No. 110-22 (“the Act”). The Act, which amends the animal fighting provisions of the federal Animal Welfare Act (“AWA”),
7 U.S.C. § 2156, goes into effect immediately.

17. As amended by the Act, it is now a felony for “any person” to “knowingly use the mail service of the United States Postal Service or any instrumentality of interstate commerce for commercial speech for purposes of promoting or in any other manner furthering an animal
fighting venture.” Pub. L. No. 110-22, § 3, 121 Stat. 88 (2007) (amending 7 U.S.C. § 2156(c))(emphasis added).

Letter to The Elephant Sanctuary from Amazon.Com
"Thank you for writing to Amazon.com with your concerns about the animal fighting books and magazines.

First, I would like to thank you for your heartfelt e-mails and I can only imagine how frustrated you must be with us at this point, I appreciate the admirable restraint you exercised in your message.

But, please note that as a retailer, our goal is to provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any item they might be seeking. That selection includes some items which many people may find objectionable. Therefore, the items offered on our web site represent a wide spectrum of opinions on a variety of topics.

Amazon.com believes it is censorship not to sell certain titles because we believe their message is objectionable. Therefore, we will continue to make controversial works available in the United States and everywhere else, except where they are prohibited by law. We also allow readers, authors, and publishers to express their views freely about these titles and other products we offer on our web site. However, Amazon.com does not endorse any opinions expressed by individual authors, musical artists, or filmmakers.

As a representative of Amazon.com, I want to assure you that your voice has been heard and I have forwarded this to our investigation department for consideration. Please know that we'll continue working hard to ensure that you receive accurate service, and to minimize the chances of anything like this occurring again.

We value all feedback from our customers, and I thank you again for taking the time to send us your comments about this issue."