We, the undersigned, do respectfully request that Craigslist immediately remove the "Community-Pets" listing category from all of their platforms worldwide.  There have been innumerable instances of animal abusers of varying degrees of viciousness taking advantage of "free to good home" advertisements on Craigslist, including picking up kittens and puppies to subsequently feed out to snakes, using free canines as bait animals in dogfighting rings or other forms of heinous torture, selling animals to labs for testing, and possibly even obtaining the animals for human consumption.  

The larger animal-rights community, including higher profile organizations such as PETA, The Humane Society, Best Friends and ALF, as well as local animal advocate groups and individuals, have been decrying the practice of advertising free animals in the classifieds for many years because animals so advertised usually don't end up in compassionate hands and most of the people advertising these animals are perhaps not very motivated to ensure that the animals are safely adopted into loving homes.  If this convenient and free vehicle for unloading unwanted domestic animals can be effectively removed, we can eliminate this particular supply stream and we will be one step closer to helping to ensure that these animals don't end up dying grisly deaths at the hands of their captors.  People with free animals to offer up could then surrender them to no-kill shelters with reasonable donations to the shelter for their assistance in homing those animals.  Most no-kill shelters and humane societies/pounds also have procedures in place to screen prospective adopters and they usually require an adoption fee and sometimes make home visits before turning over any animal, which greatly discourages people from collecting free animals for less savory purposes.

They need our help and if we don't protect them, who will?