eBay Won’t Let Desperate Canadian Town Auction off Whale Carcass for 99 Cents

You can make a lot of dubious purchases online, but eBay has yet to  jump the shark—er, whale. The town of Cape St.George, Newfoundland, tried an unorthodox way to dispose of a 40-foot rotting whale carcass decaying on their shores, but in spite of interest from bidders, the online auction site has shut the whale sale down.

Unfortunately, this is one instance where eBay’s well-intended restrictions on the sale of marine mammals might do more harm than good. The town of 1,000 hasn’t been able to find an affordable way of removing the rotting sperm whale that washed ashore on their beaches last week, and Canada’s fishery department refuses to get involved. When Cape St.George’s town council met this Sunday, they decided to try a 21st century fix before the smell of the corpse became unbearable. Thankfully, The Telegram captured this bizarre screenshot before the eBay Gods intervened:

Here’s the text from the removed listing, which was appropriately placed in eBay’s “weird stuff” category:

This 40 foot sperm whale rolled up on the beach last week. The actual seller is the town of Cape St. George which is responsible for disposing of it before it starts to decay. Once the fat and flesh is removed you have a spectacular 40 foot skeleton of the largest toothed whale in the world, great for museums and other attractions. To prevent it rotting in the town it can be towed to isolated beaches on the Port au Port Peninsula to allow the seagulls and other birds to remove the flesh. Call 709-644-2290 or 709-649-7070 for more details.

Please note the successful bidder will have to remove the whale within 30 days.

The post also dryly notes that “no returns” will be accepted. Mayor Peter Fenwick summarized Cape St. George’s predicament for AFP: