On Fur is Evil vs. Google
If you don't know how to connect Google, AdSense, Supervegan, Treehugger, Grist, China, Aretha Granklin, and the skin and fur of cats, dogs and other sentient beings, visit FurIsEvil. The site was launched recently, so you can get a feel for the entire story, with all of its tentacles, fairly quickly. You can also sign a petition to the Board of Directors of Google.
I was astounded when I learned how AdSense worked and then I was doubly astounded to learn how sites that are supposed to be vegan and/or environment-focused responded to the call to do something about the ads for fur that ended up on their sites (in a word: disappointing). It's fascinating how what appeared to be a great use of technology has a monumental flaw that actually results in promoting the opposite of what a site should stand for.
Why only petition against fur? I constantly see AdSense ads for meat, fishing trips, leather, hunting and other non-vegan stuff, on vegan websites. I agree that Google and other ad companies should have better a much better screening process, but the screening should be for all kinds of oppression items, not just fur. Since AdSense obviously cannot accomodate vegan demands, and probably never will, I think we should simply boycott them.
You'll see that Erik Marcus of Vegan.com had similar gripes and decided to stop using GoogleAds all together. Check out his post: http://tinyurl.com/c868ek
This is one reason I don't have Google Adsense on my activist blogs. I didn't do it as a boycott, I did it because it was too much hassle for me to moderate my ads and keep the evil ones off my websites.
I second what Fredrik said about it all being wrong. Fur should not stick out from leather, wool, or other animal products and AdSense should just be avoided altogether as generally promoting exploitation and murder.
Bill was kind enough to let me know that he receives Animal Person posts via gmail, and the following was on the e-mail:
Sponsored Links
Fur is NOT Dead
Fur the most beautiful Eco-Clothing Natural, sustainable, recyclable
http://www.furcouncil.com/ecological.aspx
I don't suppose I can do anything about this, but it certainly is ironic, at best.