Please sign this petition and share on all media sites to enforce stricter laws for animal protection. Let’s band together to stop the sale of pets on line as a form of barter!!
Animal groups are trying to intervene and prevent online pet adverts such as offering a puppy as a swap for a mobile phone, a Golden Retriever in exchange for a Chihuahua, a tortoise in exchange for a watch and the sale of a “fighting dog with teeth.” Other animals for sale online include an Arctic fox, a male skunk and four marmoset monkeys.
Standards are set forth by the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG) in order to protect animal welfare along with members of the public from the risk of ending up with sick, dangerous or even illegal creatures. However, adverts continue to illegally sell animals for barter and trade without complying with these standards by the PAAG! Currently, online pet advertising in its present form appears to allow almost anything, from underage animals, banned breeds and illegally imported or endangered species to animals offered in exchange for inanimate objects.
No pets should be advertised for swapping with other pets, services or goods, the standards recommend. PAAG said it is working with the government to remind consumers and websites that an animal is not a commodity like a washing machine or a car, and should not be advertised or bought in the same way. Websites in compliance with the standards will be identifiable to consumers on the PAAG website as the ethical and safer choice when deciding to find a pet online. However, adverts go against all standards and laws, continually selling and swapping precious animals for personal gain despite the harm and endangerment of the animals involved.
Research by the PAAG discovered some truly terrible examples where animal welfare was clearly the last thought in the mind of the advertiser. Every day we hear from people who have bought an animal online only for it to fall sick or die soon thereafter. Such acts have got to stop with our help and more enforcement by law officials of the UK.
UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Government Office of the UK – Laws to protect all animals need to be more seriously enforced. If they were, these adverts would not get away with treating, selling and trading animals the way they do. Why create laws and regulations if your Government does not do anything to implement them. Create a department in your offices that is adamant on laws that are developed; this is the only way people will respect rules and regulations against animal cruelty, abuse and illegal trading, barter and selling!!
