Barcelona Urged To Pressure Rakuten To End Ivory Trade, Sale Of Whale Meat

Barcelona has "been urged" to put its "full weight behind the campaign to end both the ivory trade and the practice of whaling" after the club signed a £200M ($247.3M) sponsorship deal with Japan’s largest e-commerce marketplace, Rakuten, according to Pete Jenson of the London DAILY MAIL. The sponsorship deal is set to start in June with Rakuten’s name "replacing Qatar Airways on the Barcelona shirts." But the company "sells both ivory and whale meat products online and the Environmental Investigation Agency wants Barcelona to use its influence and persuade Rakuten to put a blanket ban in place." Rakuten announced an end to whale and dolphin meat sales in April '14 "due to international pressure." But the company is understood to "have not completely stopped the trading with products still available" on its sites because the practice is not banned within Japan. Ivory trading is "also not illegal in Japan and Rakuten still advertises thousands of ivory products despite pressure to stop the practice" (DAILY MAIL, 12/19).