Amazon Misplaying Its Stated Mission

What's more, Amazon has taken on a formidable foe. It was lucky for Amazon that the Humane Society stopped short of calling for a boycott. It boasts 10 million members; just how many of them shop at Amazon is hard to gauge, but it must be in the low millions. Even a tiny fraction canceling their Amazon accounts could wreak financial damage.

Michael Markarian, an executive vice president at the Humane Society, said the focus is on magazines such as Feathered Warrior and Gamecock that run advertisements for dogs and birds bred for fighting, knives designed to be attached to their legs, and fighting events in states where ads for such events are a felony. Amazon is the only retail vendor for those magazines, according to the complaint.

Markarian says the ads violate federal law. Other magazines, such as Grit and Steel, discuss cockfighting without those ads, and the Humane Society isn't asking Amazon to stop selling them.

Amazon has stopped selling other publications deemed unlawful, such as Mein Kampf in Germany. Asked for Amazon's views on the magazines' legality, spokeswoman Patty Smith directed me to a statement Thursday from the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression.

That statement said that the section of the federal law "cited by the Humane Society has been applied only to those who are actually engaged in animal fighting. It has never been used to prosecute advertisers or publishers, much less distributors." So, Amazon's stance could be vindicated, although it would make for a nasty black eye if the courts deem the magazines illegal.