Earlier today, I read that Ebay has decided to ban the sale of ivory on its website. Ebay is a private company and can make any rules it likes. Then I saw this article explaining that illegal sales of endangered animals are all too common for some animal rights groups.

First, I thought of the movie The Freshman with Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando.

Seriously - What are these bans on trade trying to accomplish? Are they achieving those goals? Are there unintended consequences? Is it possible such bans could backfire and further endanger the animals they are trying to protect? Are such bans really enforceable? At what cost? If governments were not so powerful, animal rights groups could spend more time on education and exerting public pressure on companies such as EBay, rather than lobbying politicians to point their guns at certain groups of individuals.