eBay, Gumtree and Facebook: Please Ban All Sales of Live Animals on Your Sites!

The selling of live animals online has been linked to a number of animals dying or being mistreated. Dog-fighters have been known to obtain animals from online listings. The seller/s may not intentionally sell their animals/s to anyone that would mistreat or wouldn't give them a good home and love them, but dog-fighters and other unscrupulous, cruel and/or irresponsible people can make themselves seem as if they were good enough for the animal/s and as if they would give them a good home, and then mistreat them or just not look after them properly. Even the most vigilant and careful of sellers could unintentionally put their animal/s at risk if they advertise them for sale online. Selling animals online is always putting them at risk. A good, responsible, caring and loving animal carer who knows the facts and the sad stories relating to animals being sold online, would NEVER sell them online. If they had any animals that they wanted or needed to rehome or sell, they would either take them to a good, no-kill rescue or shelter, rehome or sell them via an advert in a newspaper or magazine, or by word of mouth, or get in contact with a breed club or the kennel club or other relevant organisation. If they did rehome or sell the animal/s themselves, they would be very careful and responsible in making sure that that animal (or those animals) went to a good home/s.
Selling animals online is also a route that puppy farmers (puppy mill operators) and irresponsible backyard breeders are probably more inclined to use, thereby enabling them to profit from their cruelty and promoting the cruelty and bad ethics of puppy mills/farms and backyard breeders.
This also detracts from the millions of poor, unfortunate dogs, cats and other animals in need of homes, those who are in shelters and rescues, and those who are living rough. For every dog, cat, rodent, rabbit, ferret, horse, pony, donkey or bird who is bought, another one in need loses that chance.
Some people believe that eBay don't allow the sale of live animals. However, they do allow these sales in certain circumstances, such as the sale of at least some fertile eggs and also the sale of live crickets for reptiles. This is still problematic. The chicks who hatch from those eggs may end up in the hands of people who won't or can't look after them properly, people who didn't research them properly or think things through properly first or even people who may mistreat them, kill them and, perhaps, eat them when they are big enough, or when they stop laying. As for the crickets, this contributes to and enables the cruelty of the "pet" trade in exotic animals. It's also cruel to the poor crickets. They may travel for miles and miles only to be fed, alive, to reptiles. Yes, reptiles need to eat and that is nature (and I don't dislike reptiles and would never intentionally hurt or kill them and would stand up for them, too), but, if we just left the reptiles either in the wild or in good sanctuaries, there wouldn't be a need for people to buy live animals to feed to their "pet" reptiles.
Also, animals are not commodities. Gumtree, eBay and Facebook sales should be limited to safe, ethical, vegan inanimate objects, food and liquid, not sentient beings…