Encourage Craigslist: Stop Selling Dogs that Often Leads to the Wrong Owner, Abuse and Cruelty

Please sign and share this petition worldwide in an effort to demand that Craigslist not sell live animals on their site. There is no way to monitor who purchases these animals from an online site such as this, placing many if not most of these animals in the wrong hands. Whether it is "free to a good home" or for a fee, we must ask them to please take down and ban any and all listings involving the sale or give-away of pets and live animals.

After the most recent case of animal abuse where the dog's were purchased supposedly from Craigslist, taken to a motel, brutalized and dismembered, we need to crack down on this site and stop any listings of live animals. This has not been the only case involving dogs secured through Craigslist.

Animals that are sold on Craigslist are unregulated and the people are unaware of where the animals are coming from, but they are also unaware of where their animals are going. For example:

• One man was found guilty of torturing and killing over twenty-five cats he "adopted" on Craigslist
• Recently, this young man adopted some small dogs only to torture and dismember them
• Frequently, dogs are purchased online and used in dog fighting rings, especially as bait dogs
• Some people are adopting the puppies, kittens, and small mammals on Craigslist as food for their large snakes and lizards
• Other people that source animals for research facilities all use these ads to find pets.
• A newer phenomena is pet flipping – searching free adds for pets to sell for a profit elsewhere (they often end up in one of the above categories). Dog flipping often involves people who take dogs from unsuspecting people and flip them for a profit. Dog flippers usually pick up popular breeds or pick up unwanted litters from dog owners for free or at low cost. Dog flippers are also known to claim pets who have been posted online as "found" (so if you ever find a pet, make sure you ask for proof of ownership from anyone who shows up to claim the pet).

People are often looking to re-home a pet for various reasons and trust people on answering the ad. Such was the cast with Gotti. “The guy that first got him lived in Chicago and he was sent to prison,” says animal control officer Susan Elliot. “So, Gotti wound up with a cousin who lived in Waukegan in a very gang infested area. He was living tied to a fence with no shelter. Also, when I arrived there were at least 10 thugs standing around drinking. The reason I know he was sold on Craigslist he had a microchip that was registered to the original owners.”

Anyone answering an ad for a pet is of course going to come across as being caring and loving but there is no real way to pre-screen such individuals, guaranteeing their authenticity. So many horrifying cases exists from animals offered on Craigslist. Doing so is the same as torturing the animal yourself. Do not offer a pet on this site and encourage Craigslist to stop listing live animals there. Protect the animals and follow safer protocol when looking for a "good" home for a pet you care about.

Please sign and share this petition worldwide in an effort to demand that Craigslist not sell live animals on their site. There is no way to monitor who purchases these animals from an online site such as this, placing many if not most of these animals in the wrong hands. Whether it is "free to a good home" or for a fee, we must ask them to please take down and ban any and all listings involving the sale or give-away of pets and live animals.