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The Craigslist Situation - Considerable Improvement!
Read the column from Saturday, May 13, 2006 Oakland Tribune.
While animal sales are clearly disallowed by Craigslist, a popular, online bulletin board, the flood of casually- and badly-bred animals is too great to be stifled by the community alone. Community "flagging" is the standard solution for prohibited content on Craigslist. On May 21, 2005, a group of East Bay Area Shelters and Rescue Groups sent a request to Craig Newmark, owner of Craigslist, an online bulletin board, to reconsider their management of pets-for-sale postings.
We are pleased to report that over a period of time, beginning in the Fall of 2005, Craigslist made some significant changes to their website:
1) Added language to the top of the Pet Community Section, "no animal sales please -- rehoming with small adoption fee OK."
2) Added similar language to the page from which users begin to post.
3) Made it more difficult to "top post" the same entry multiple times. A post that that has been flagged and deleted, cannot be posted again as is for 48 hours, without going back to where it originated.
The results have been encouraging. Today, the public using Craigslist as a vehicle for rehoming pets are getting the message:
- Breeders irresponsibly selling puppies online to anyone with the money are unwelcome and in violation of Craigslist's Terms of Services.
- Individuals, shelters, and rescue groups looking to responsibly rehome spayed and neutered animals are welcome.
- Responsible breeders, with responsible breeding programs realize that their animals well-being is better served by a more selective process of finding new homes. Good breeders will always have customers.
What are left are a small handful of individuals who still attempt to use Craigslist to profit off of litters of pets. But the number is so small that, true to its community guidelines, Craigslist users enforce their community standards by flagging these unwanted ads off. We recently ran a test, promoting different breeds of puppies, offered at different prices and without fail, the ads were removed in as short as five minutes, but no longer than 45 minutes.
We still have a long ways to go, in educating the public about responsibly bringing a new animal into their home, and we hope Craigslist will continue to assist in these efforts.
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