This week eBay announced it would stop selling ivory products -- even antiques. The idea is to make sure there's less of a viable market for ivory -- and help cut the demand that leads to more elephant killing.

The decision comes just before the International Fund for Animal Welfare issued a report Killing with Keystrokes that shows how illegal trade in animals and animal parts goes on right in the virtual public square -- online auctions.

IFAW looked at 183 publicly available websites in 11 countries for six weeks and turned up
7,111 online auctions for species that shouldn't be traded. The vast majority were for trade in endangered species, specifically elephant ivory, but also included live birds and some other animal products.

Last week I was up in New Brunswick, Canada and got a chance to try out a novel bear-viewing attraction. At the Little, Big Bear Safari, hunting guide, Richard Goguen has built a tower on his family land to watch black bears. The success of the operation makes me think that bear-viewing has some future as a way people in rural areas can make money off bears without hunting them -- as long as a few safety concerns are covered.

Goguen built a road into land that once belonged to his grandfather in Acadieville, in northeast New Brunswick, about 150 miles east of Maine. In the late '90s Richard worked for a season guiding American bear hunters, but didn't like the killing. One day he took a hunter who had already been successful out just to take pictures of bear and moose. Both had more fun doing that than hunting and Richard decided then he wanted to start a bear-viewing operation.

Richard built a trial six-person tower a decade ago, then a 15-person giant tree house in 2000. Having to turn people away, he expanded again last year to a two-story, two-staircase, wood and metal mesh tower that includes a wood-burning stove. They offer the tour every night and have his friendly forest ranger neighbors fill in when he wants a night off.

Richard and his wife Vivienne, a multi-lingual Acadian couple, get busloads of German tourists and visitors from all over the world. The neighbors are proud so many people come to see their natural wonder.

When John McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, wildlife lovers cringed for two reasons. The first is that she seems like just the kind of smart, young leader who has battled corruption and government waste that could get not so environmentally friendly Republicans elected. The second is that Palin herself has been on the side of hunters instead of wildlife watchers--even when the fiscal numbers are not on hunting's side.

Palin--in addition to vowing to sue to stop the listing Polar Bears as an endangered species--has put the weight of the state behind defeating a ballot measure that would have limited the aerial shooting of wolves. Nationwide aerial hunting has been banned since 1972's Airborne Hunting Act, but Alaska gets around that by saying the hunters are working for the state to control predators. The idea is to produce more moose and caribou to hunt.

The Alaska Fish and Game Department has been allowing aerial wolf hunting--even though voters said no to it twice--for since 2003. (The legislature later overturned the voters' decision.) But this time Alaskans voted 92,781 to 74,124 to allow it.

The Environmental Group WildEarth Guardians says an anachronistic part of the Department of Agriculture spent $117 million last year to kill 2.4 million animals. The Wildlife Services has changed names plenty of times, but dates back to the days when the prevailing wisdom was just to wipe out any animals that got in the way of people. In its defense, the agency says it saves up to four times what it spends in agricultural losses. Of course, those would be private losses and we're spending tax money.

The agency just agreed to start putting out its data in a readable form after pressure from WildEarth Guardians. Meanwhile the animal group estimated that about half of those exterminated were starlings (an invasive bird) but 122,000 were carnivore mammals (like coyote and bear). The Wildlife Services program accidentally knocked off reindeer, pronghorn sheep, foxes, and bald eagles, says WildEarth Guardian's Wendy Keefover-Ring. Their sloppy application of poisons has killed off pet dogs, like Jenna, a lab mix poisoned while hunting rabbits. Most tragically, 10 people have died in aerial shooting programs.

Sure, some ranchers should be compensated for wildlife losses. The government should cooperate so frustrated ranchers don't take matters into their own hands. But the wildlife bureacracy has spread to cover all kinds of entrepreneurs from the cost of doing business. They also kill bears to protect logging companies (bears like seedlings). Federal agents bumped off 300,000 blackbirds who's big crime was eating sunflowers grown for birdseed. Fish farmers get protection from birds, too.

When people suffer financially, their animals face hardship, too. At the beginning of the year the Humane Society warned about about shelters being overwhelmed. Dogs and cats were losing their families when those families lost their homes. Now we're hearing about all kind of animals suffering in the financial downturn. Basically any animal that depends on humans is a little bit less secure.

Dogs and Cats
Shelters around the country report a surge of animals surrendered. Some have surely been forced into the situation, but lots of animals seem to be cast out as if they were impractical luxury goods. In Los Angeles, an 11-year-old shepherd was left scared in the shelter; the Animal Shelter of Sterling, MA, tells the Worcester Telegram that they haven't seen this many surrendered animals in 15 years; dogs in Dallas are being dumped on the side of the road. And, as I wrote about earlier, some people cruelly abandoned their pets in the house as a way to inflict suffering on the bank -- never mind what it did to the animal.

As the summer of the staycation draws to a close, you may be looking for something, anything fun to do around home that doesn't cost a lot of money. My big hobby is going places to see wild animals. And I'm certainly not alone.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2006 recreation survey says 87 million Americans now actively watch wildlife, many going on long trips. That's more than hunt (12.5 million), though lots of hunters are wildlife watchers, too. As a hobby I'm trying to map them out on a website animaltourism.com.

The most satisfying way to see animals is in the wild, which is also the toughest, requiring knowledge, patience and luck. If you're thinking of a trip with kids, you probably don't want to have to try to keep them quietly waiting for hours with a good chance of disappointment. So, the next best thing are wildlife rehabilitation facilities and sanctuaries for exotic animals. For the little kids, even farm animals are a big thrill.