Is China’s Ganji a Haven for Illegal Bird Traffickers?

China’s Ganji is a site where you can buy almost anything. From apartments and bikes to camera lenses and other random goodies. You can even buy pets, which is cool. In fact, it might be a little bit too cool — apparently, at least one seller has been using it to sell eagles.

According to this report from the Morning News, one seller posted an eagle on the consumer-to-consumer sales site, writing “I’m keeping an eagle as a pet, but because my family opposes it, I have no choice but to sell it.” The eagle — actually called a crested goshawk in English — is a protected animal in China, illegal to buy or sell. According to the reporter who discovered the posting, the bird did not appear to be in great health.

The reporter bought one — for 1500 RMB — and took it to the Shanghai Zoo to get it checked out. It was indeed unhealthy, and the zoo experts also said it was unable to hunt in the wild. They also said that the bird in the photos online is actually two separate birds, which is evidence that the seller might be a bird trafficker.

I’m exaggerating a bit — clearly Ganji isn’t to blame for one seller taking advantage of the system to sell poached birds of prey — but we’ll keep an eye on this, and perhaps even do a little investigation of our own to see what other weird pets might be available on Ganji.

[Morning News via Sina Tech, image source]