eBay Classifieds: Stop Selling Live Animals!

Feb 18th, 2011 by Deborah Flick

Let’s join together with Change.org and tell eBay to stop selling live animals in their classified ads.

For the backstory about eBay’s evasive responses to the outcry, read this Overview by Stephanie Feldstein from Change.org.

BTW, Felissa Hadas of Two Little Cavaliers got this ball rolling! Read about it: “eBay Petition Has Gone Viral!” Thank you Felissa!

Here’s what you can do:

* Sign the petition in the right side-bar of this blog: Ebay Classifieds: Stop Selling Live Animals
* Send an email to eBay telling them to STOP!. Click here for a letter Change.org has already written.
* If you received a copy of the email below from Change.org, please forward it to your friends.
* If you didn’t receive the email, please send this post to your friends. Just click on the envelope icon at the bottom of this post.

* Write a blog post!

* Put the petition widget on your blog. Click on “Get Widget” at the bottom of the petition badge in the sidebar.

Change.org email:

Dear Deborah,

“Puppy mills” are large-scale commercial operations where dozens of dogs are kept in small cages for their entire lives, forced to give birth to litter after litter until they’re no longer fertile, at which point they’re usually killed. Puppy mills are unsafe, inhumane, and produce thousands of puppies with serious health problems every year.

Now, puppy mills have found a national vendor: eBay.

A few years ago, eBay had plans to sell animals via online auction. Responsible breeders would never sell dogs via online auction, so this would have resulted in the site becoming a haven for puppy mills. eBay users and anti-cruelty activists spearheaded — and won — the fight to prevent eBay from selling live animals.

But now all that’s changed.

Despite eBay’s claims that it “do[es] not condone unethical treatment of animals,” eBay now allows puppy mills to sell dogs in its classified section.

This practice enables flagrant cruelty to dogs, and it has to stop. Tell eBay to shut down its sales of cruelly treated puppies and all live animals.

Puppy mill dogs spend their entire lives in small wire cages, without companionship, and often without vet care, exercise or shelter from the elements. As far as puppy mill owners are concerned, the dogs have one purpose: to supply the pet trade.

The USDA recently admitted that they’ve failed to effectively monitor commercial breeders and puppy mills. When it comes to sites like eBay Classifieds, it’s even worse: Breeders who sell directly to customers online aren’t subject to any USDA regulations.

The best chance we have to shut down puppy mills is to hold vendors accountable.

Click here to tell eBay to shut down all live animal sales immediately:

http://www.change.org/petitions/ebay-classifieds-stop-selling-live-animals?alert_id=JhDDcGIQNR_zHKPkkRBXq&me=aa

Thanks for taking action,

Judith and the Change.org Team