missed putting up the link

Here is a link that might be useful: https://community.hsus.org/campaign/US_2007_amazon_fighting3

Did ANYONE email Jeffrey Bezos at amazon?

I didn't. I am a bit conflicted about this. I am opposed to animal fighting... but I am also opposed to certain types of censorship.

Amazon is a global business and serves customers around the world. Possibly they have customers in areas where animal fighting is legal and part of a foreign culture.

I did! I've been shopping Amazon for years and never noticed. Thank you for posting this important link moonie!

I feel the same conflict that joepyeweed does. I despise animal fighting, but until it is illegal in the places that Amazon.com serves...

I was pretty horrified a few weeks back while watching Animal Planet Animal Cops (Houston)- until watching that episode, I did not realize that cockfighting is still LEGAL in New Mexico and Louisiana. Wow... Makes me sick just thinking about it. Even the USA has a ways to go on this issue, it is not just other parts of the world.

If the books were titled, "How to make bombs and blow up your school and shoot your teachers with household items Volume 1" then people would say burn it.
I say burn this one.

joepyeweed, quasifish - I respect your positions but I have no qualms in supporting this type of censorship.

Cockfighting is still legal in some parts of the US? That's just..... sick

I did send Bezos an Email and forwarded the link to friends.

I too did what Monablair did.

Legality has nothing to do with what is right and wrong. I sent an email yesterday too.

All kinds of atrocities are/were legal somewhere at somepoint in time-- slavery, female genital mutilation, stoning, etc.

Just because something's a law, that doesn't make it morally right.

As Rose Sayer in "The African Queen" said, " Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above."

Laws are man-made and meant to be changed.

Just because something is morally wrong, doesn't mean that people can't read or write books about it...

should we ban the sale of all books about prostitution, drug use, the holocost and whether it existed or not...

who is going to draw line about which books are morally right and which books are not? Certainly not me....

I forgot to add: yes, I signed the email. Thanks for the heads-up.

I don't know if I made it clear above that, even though laws are man-made, they, too, are what we are put in this world to rise above and change. I know my previous post may have sounded contradictory.

I'm not for censorship, but, there's nothing wrong with boycotting anything you feel is morally wrong. That's free speech. And, especially if they're flouting the law by dancing around it, how can the argument be upheld that it's legal in other countries? (I have no problem boycotting companies that sell fur. Dogs and cats are used for fur in some places in Asia.)

Also, I don't understand the Holocaust example. Debating the existence is not the same as a how-to book. Even if it were a how-to book, I'd say the author had a right to sell it (and, I come from Holocaust survivors). I'm concerned about something else. Isn't child pornography illegal? Aren't we (the public) just trying to protect those who can't protect themselves (kids/animals)?

Amazon.com's persistence is all the more disturbing because it comes after Congress passed legislation making it a felony offense to ship publications containing "commercial speech" for the purpose of promoting or "in any other manner furthering" animal fighting.

I sometimes think that "culture" is just a big ole king's x to get away with reprehensible behavior.

It used to be legal & part of our own "culture" for men to beat their wives, for factories to work children, for employers to make workers buy from the company store & live in the company town.

If I'm making a value judgment about someone else's culture by finding cockfighting & dogfighting cruel & unacceptable, so be it.

I sent the email.

Count me in for boycotting things that I think are morally wrong, whether legal in some foreign land or not.

Recently I came across two dead pitbulls that had been dumped over the side of a guard rail. It broke my heart to see them there.

I've shopped on Amazon.com for years. I will not spend another dime there until they pull every type of animal fighting material they have.

Thanks for the link Moonie. I sent the email and sent the link to a huge list of people.

Don't get me wrong, if I personally owned a bookstore, I would not sell this garbage by personal choice. My problem with the situation is that [IMO] selling the literature isn't the problem, it is a symptom of the problem :^( Don't write Jeff Bezos, write congressmen and senators of states where these things are still legal or tolerated. Lobby for laws and stricter sentences for people who get involved with this type of activity. Support groups that work to bring enlightenment to other parts of the world. In other words, do something towards a real difference that will make these publications obsolete.

I think in many places, this type of activity is seen as a way of life with no regard of animals as "souls" instead of "property." I honestly don't think you change that kind of thinking by removing a magazine from a shelf rather than finding a way to make the activity illegal and with great consequences. I guess I'm just being pessimistic about how this type of problem can be dealt with- I apologize for that and hope that boycotting and emailing Amazon does something to change the problem for all the victimized animals out there.

I can think of some examples of books they don't sell either for moral reasons or legal and there's no reason I can think of to carry these as they are probably losing more business with these irate customers than sales of these books on dogfighting.... not to mention... if they pull these books then they could create customer loyalty amongst those who were once p.o'd and they could put out a press release saying they're pulling the books and get a bunch of free air time. Cha ching. It'll happen. I'm pretty sure. They'd be nuts not to.