- Target:
- Kiva (http://www.kiva.org)
- Region:
- GLOBAL
- Website:
- www.dkfriedman.name
Petition is currently under construction.
A persistent issue in the Kiva community going back to
2008 has been the posting of loans which involve cockfighting.
Cockfighting is a brutal and inhumane blood sport and is illegal in many nations.
In all 50 states of the U.S. cockfighting is banned, and any efforts to promote the activity are also illegal under U.S. Federal Law.
Animal Fighting of all kinds has been found correlated with other crimes:
http://www.americanhumane.org/protecting-animals/conferences-trainings/animal-welfare-trainings/animal-fighting-investigation-workshop.html
Kiva's position has been that since cockfighting does not violate major UN conventions it is acceptable for posting.
In response to this policy many lenders have simply ceased to lend through Kiva.
This issue has caused significant debate, and a link is provided here for more information:
http://www.dkfriedman.name/kiva_cockfighting_loans.php
Matt Flannery made the following statement:
"I see Kiva as a public property, 'owned', in a sense, by its three main constituents—the entrepreneurs, the lenders and the MFI partners, all of whom we serve....What is needed to create this environment of mutual support is rich communication, promoting greater understanding around the challenges and needs of each constituent."
http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/matt-flannery-kiva-ceo-and-co-founder-replies.php
Toward this end we ask for a conference call to publicly address cockfighting loans.
Time permitting efforts can also be made toward determining an acceptable criteria for publicly posted loans, and the specific mechanics of how certain offensive or questionable loans might be reversed, refunded, and taken off the site.
After the conference call a poll will be released to all Kiva lenders where the issue of cockfighting loans, or other objectionable content will be presented in an unbiased way.
Kiva's actions can be in part guided by the results of that poll.
The Call on Kiva to Address Cockfighting Loans Issue petition to Kiva (http://www.kiva.org) was written by David Friedman and is in the category Animal Rights at GoPetition.