Craigslist’s shady pet advertisers contribute to mass killing of healthy animals [Updates]

These backyard breeders and irresponsible individuals do not only cause the killing of innocent animals in the government shelters but also the overflow of no-kill shelters and rescue organizations. Hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats are waiting often for years (and SOME NEVER GET ADOPTED AND DIE OF OLD AGE IN A KENNEL) to be adopted.
UNLESS THERE ARE NO MORE: DO NOT SHOP – ADOPT!

I live in the SF Bay Area and for the last two years I was checking CL every day and flagging almost every ad I came across. What I was seeing on these ads really started to take a toll on me emotionally and it came to the point where I don’t really check the site anymore except on occasion. The fact that I was seeing the same people with MULTIPLE litters of pitbulls and Chihuahuas almost daily was disgusting and breaking my heart. Advertising that people better come get the animals now at $200 with now shots, no paper work, no care for where they were going or they were going to be dumped at a shelter later that week. It’s really hard to keep going and not feel defeated when you’re flagging this stuff daily. I really hope CL either removes the section or fixes it. It’s such a shame because not everyone abuses the site. I found my rescue through CL and love them. There is another website we should be concerned about, ebay classifieds. I feel as though if CL took away the pet section everyone would head to ebay.

FLAGGING IS KILLING ANIMALS. While I think animal rights groups mean well, when they get an ad removed from Craigslist, the animals usually end up dead. I volunteer for a rescue in SC. Our shelter cannot begin to take the 1000s of animals people want to dump on us. I tell them to advertise the animals on Craigslist and we will fix the animal before it’s given away. A typical situation is someone lets her cat have kittens. I tell her to put them on Craigslist and charge a $15 adoption fee per kitten (you don’t dare give away free animals in the South … I tried that once and ended up at dogfighter’s trailer). Well of course the ad usually gets flagged. Then the kittens are brought to the pound (i.e. the local gas chamber). In another typical case, a pit bull has pit mix puppies. Members of a rescue group told the owner to list on Craigslist with a $20 adoption fee per puppy so she could use it toward the cost of the mother’s spay. She was agreeable realizing her mistake in not getting her dog fixed sooner (and thinking that a fenced-in yard would keep stray male dogs out while her female was in heat). However, her ad kept getting flagged, and she got nasty emails about being a breeder. A relative of hers then shot all the puppies as a quick solution. Yes, a large percentage of pet ads that get flagged result in animals being shot by family members or neighbors. Even my own ads get flagged. I found a stray orange cat, spent $160 on vet bills and posted with a $25 adoption fee. I got nasty emails from animal rights activists saying I was trying to make a profit and that I should keep the cat myself. My own cats have feline leukemia (I adopted them to save them from certain euthanasia, but the disease is contagious). I did not want to expose the orange cat to my cats. I wanted to get him a home, but animal rights activists kept flagging my ads and sending me hateful emails. I urge people to think about these things before they mindlessly flag ads from parts of the country they know nothing about. 10,000 animals are euthanized per year in almost every SC county despite the efforts of rescue groups and low-cost s/n clinics. I used to think of people interested animals rights as intellectuals, now I think of them as ignorant and narrow-minded…and quite frankly responsible for the death of 1000s of pets who could have gotten homes if only their Craigslist ads had not been flagged.

I am with a rescue and my ads frequently get flagged. They in no way resemble the obvious backyard breeder ads. This is happening to other rescuers as well. We’re getting nasty emails from animal rights people in other parts of the country saying that we shouldn’t charge small adoption fees (ex: $25) even though the average animal costs us $150 to vet. I also get emails from people accusing me of just trying to get rid of my own animals and demanding that I keep the cats I list (which are strays being fostered by other volunteers). I live in an apartment and am at my pet limit. In one case I listed a cat whose owner had died ($25 adoption fee), and I was accused of selling my dead grandmother’s cat(my grandmother is alive and doesn’t have a cat). These animal rights people are NUTS. I’m in a state of disbelief at what local rescuers are facing and the kind of messages we’re getting from people who have no idea of the extent of animal overpopulation in the South. THey euthanized 10,000 cats and dogs in my county last year, and people on the West Coast are flagging the ads of local rescuers. It does absolutely nothing to stop backyard breeders who easily sold dogs long before Craigslist. What flagging has instead done is discourage people like me who see one legitimate ad after another taken down.