Dear Mr. Rolv-Erik Ryssdal, 

Congratulations on your acquisition of eBay Classifieds Group. As Adevinta Chief Executive, you now have control of brands such as Kijiji.

It’s been exactly 7 years today since I first started this petition to stop the sale of animals on Kijiji Canada.

When I launched my petition in 2013, I did not expect to get over 356,500 signatures, nor did I expect to get the support of 31 animal welfare organizations in Canada, including the Winnipeg Humane Society, the Montreal SPCA, and the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies, a national organization representing 46 humane societies and SPCAs in Canada.

I did not anticipate receiving hundreds of comments from users who have been cheated by unscrupulous animal breeders on Kijiji. I never expected to have so many people email me stories about their beloved pet they got on Kijiji only to discover, to their great distress, that it was sick, or when they tried to contact the seller about it, he had vanished without a trace. I never imagined the emotional and financial burden these people go through.

I certainly did not expect to get national media attention in the press, radio and TV across the country. I did not expect to get the Royal Bank of Canada to stop advertising on Kijiji’s pet sale pages, nor to get the help of so many supporters in convincing the National Bank of Canada, Tangerine Bank, TD Bank, Toyota Canada, and the shopping website zulily to pull their ads, too. And I could never have dreamed for my petition to be one of the motivators for the classified site Used.ca to ban profiting from household pets across their entire network.

I did not expect that I would spend so much of the little spare time that I have – because running a social campaign is not my day job – to attempt to convince Kijiji why it is so wrong of Kijiji Canada to sell animals on its site. I did not foresee that I would ask the Government of Quebec in May 2020 to prohibit the commercial sale of animals on online classified sites in Quebec - which I am awaiting its response.

But at least I expected that Kijiji would change. That Kijiji would perhaps acknowledge the increasing popularity of the petition, the growing list of companies disassociating themselves from the sale of pets on Kijiji Canada, the testimonials of disappointed Kijiji users, and the media coverage demonstrating that too many buyers continue to be cheated by unscrupulous breeders on classified ad sites, or that Kijiji would admit its lack of control over the content of its site. I hoped that subsequent General Managers of Canada’s largest classifieds site would warn Canadian consumers about the sale of animals on online classifieds sites. That they would care about animal welfare and be responsible enough to protect its users.

Puppy mills and unethical breeders may continue to exist even if Kijiji Canada stops the sale of animals on its site, but at least you would not give them an easy platform to thrive on. As long as you know that animals with health problems (perhaps because of the conditions under which they are raised and bred) are being sold on classified sites, and as long as you know that users are being cheated by unethical animal breeders on Kijiji, you should not be selling animals. The online markets Used.ca, OfferUp, BuySellTrade, letgoCanada, Craigslist and Facebook ban the sale of animals on their sites. As the world’s largest online classifieds company, Adevinta should set an example and ban pet sales on Kijiji, sending the message that animals should not be sold as just another item via classified ads. Can Adevinta take a stand to protect animals?

Until I get a genuine response from you as to why Kijiji Canada continues to sell animals, I will keep writing to you. Because I have 356,500 people who are backing me up. Because I don't want to let them down. Because I care about animals and people, and I know you do, too.

It is time for Kijiji to stop animal ads and for Adevinta to finally change this world.

Regards,

Barbara Lapointe