The daughter of a 9/11 victim is criticizing Etsy after she said she received targeted advertisements from the online marketplace that showed an upsetting image spoofing the 2001 tragedy.
Amy Stabile told Fox 5 New York that she had been scrolling through Facebook when she saw an Etsy ad for T-shirts with a 9/11-themed design of Garfield and New York City’s World Trade Center Twin Towers.
The shirts depicted Garfield in the shape of an airplane flying into the character’s favorite food — lasagna — in the shape of the towers. The shirt read, “9/11? Yeah! I’ll take 911 … orders of lasagna!”
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, after terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
Stabile’s dad, Herman Broghammer, died in the attacks that day.
“I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” Stabile recalled to Fox 5 New York after seeing the shirts online. “Thousands of lives were murdered [in the 9/11 incident].”
“When I saw Garfield — I didn’t even understand how it goes together,” she continued. “There are so many things you could put on a T-shirt. Why this? You feel so crushed that someone, anyone, could think that the loss of these lives is funny.”
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The seller of the T-shirts, NelliesNestStore, is based in Australia, though they ship out of North Carolina, Fox 5 New York reported.
The store’s profile reads, “Silly Merch for Silly Dudes” and boasts a five-star rating. The seller has since taken the T-shirts down from the website as of Saturday, March 22.
PEOPLE has reached out to Etsy for comment on the incident.
According to Etsy’s current policies, items that “promote, support or glorify hatred” or “violence” are prohibited from the site. A spokesperson for the company told Fox 5 New York that humor is subjective and that the platform did not plan to remove the items.
A spokesperson also told the outlet that it would take a closer look to make sure that the T-shirts depicting Garfield and 9/11 didn’t end up in ads.
Stabile, meanwhile, is calling for stricter policies on the market selling platform. She told Fox 5 New York: “Maybe it’s time to start creating policies where this goes against your company policies. You’re making money [off] terrorism. Where are these companies? Stand up for the families of 9/11 and do something about this.”
“At some point you want to say, ‘Have some humanity and think about how you’re making your money,’ ” she added.
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