Excerpts from Barbara La Pointe’s correspondence with Kijiji Canada representatives about her petition asking the company to stop puppy mills and prohibit the sale of household pets.

Barbara, Petition starter: The commercial sale of animals through Kijiji perpetuates a deeply problematic ecosystem that systematically undermines animal welfare and consumer protection, characterized by:

Entrenching unethical breeding practices that prioritize profit over animal health, resulting in genetic vulnerabilities and chronic medical conditions;
Creating a pipeline that sustains and financially rewards puppy mills and irresponsible breeding operations;

Generating cascading harm to consumers through significant, often unpredictable veterinary expenses that impose substantial financial and emotional burdens;

Causing profound personal and professional disruption, with pet owners experiencing diminished workplace productivity and emotional distress when managing the health challenges of animals acquired through Kijiji.

Posting policies put in place by Kijiji are good steps toward protecting animal welfare, upholding Canadian laws and keeping our communities safe. The responsible thing to do now is for Kijiji to enforce their posting policies. Puppy mills and unethical breeders may continue to exist even if Kijiji Canada reviews pets ads BEFORE they go live, but at least it would prevent some animals from suffering while reducing the number of individuals and families needlessly scammed.

I did a quick search on Kijiji and found ads offering dogs for free, despite Kijiji’s policy stating that dogs and puppies cannot be listed as free.
Kijiji does not have a similar policy for cats and kittens, allowing people to give them away for free on your platform.

My question to Scott Neil, CEO of Kijiji Canada : Will Kijiji halt commercial animal sales—exclusively promoting adoptions through registered rescue groups and shelters, and family pet rehoming with modest adoption fees—until all provinces and territories mandate license numbers in pet breeder advertisements, following New Brunswick's example? At a minimum, will Kijiji implement human moderation to review pet ads for pet posting policy compliance before publication?”

Kijiji Canada: We deeply appreciate the work you do and take concerns about pet rehoming on our platform very seriously. Ensuring that the Pets category remains a safe and responsible space is a top priority for us. This is a complex task given the vast amount of content posted on Kijiji every day, but we are deeply committed to upholding high standards.

Our Approach to Safety & Moderation: We have invested heavily in a combination of automated systems, proactive monitoring, and user reporting to help maintain a secure environment:

Automated systems: we employ advanced machine learning and filtering tools to scan content as it’s posted, helping detect and remove listings that violate our policies, such as commercial breeding, fraud, or spam.

When such content is identified, it can be automatically removed or flagged for further review.

User reporting & review: we rely on our user community to help identify and report inappropriate content. When an ad is flagged or we receive a message from community members, the reported content undergoes further review, and appropriate action is taken.

Focus On Unethical Breeding & Misuse: We recognize the risks associated with unethical breeding and irresponsible rehoming. That’s why we’ve implemented safeguards to promote responsible pet adoption and to help prevent misconduct, including:

Dogs and puppies posted in the Pets section may not be listed as Free. It is important to us that everyone who adopts a dog can afford the care of the animal

Allowing listings for free cats, following SPCA guidelines to address shelter overpopulation, but discouraging these listings by not offering a “free” price option for cats during the ad creation process.

Insertion fees for all pet rehoming ads, to further promote accountability and discouraging misuse of our platform.

One free pet listing per household, limiting excessive listings and supporting a more controlled approach to rehoming.

Ongoing Policy Development & Partnerships: Over the years, Kijiji has established meaningful relationships with animal welfare organizations such as the Ontario SPCA and Toronto Humane Society, as well as with law enforcement. These relationships have played a key role in shaping our policies, helping us maintain a safe environment for the Kijiji community. For instance, in collaboration with our partners, we made the decision to disallow terms like “designer” and “teacup” in the Pets category, recognizing that such labels prioritize aesthetics over health considerations.

We admire your advocacy for stronger legislation around licensing pet establishments. If the legislation should change, we are committed to reviewing our policies to ensure we comply with legal obligations around licensing.

We appreciate your feedback and hope this clarifies Kijiji’s commitment to supporting a safe and trustworthy environment for pet rehoming. If you ever come across a listing that you believe violates our policies, we strongly encourage you to report it using the Report Listing flag or by reaching out to us directly.

Barbara: Despite your stated measures, I can still find listings offering dogs for free on your platform (as evidenced in the examples I shared on January 31, 2025). This vulnerability in your monitoring system could be exploited by individuals with harmful intentions—particularly alarming in light of the recent tragic animal cruelty case in Winnipeg. Would you be open to reviewing and enhancing your current platform's safeguards?

Kijiji Canada: We are committed to continuously improving our content moderation processes to minimize policy-violating listings on our platform. Following the insights you shared on January 31, we have enhanced our tools to more effectively intercept and remove free dog listings. We actively encourage our users to flag inappropriate listings, which helps us refine our moderation strategies.

Barbara: Your policy on free cat listings, which you indicate follows SPCA guidelines on shelter overpopulation, appears to conflict with current recommendations from leading animal welfare organizations. In response to the recent Winnipeg case, the Winnipeg Humane Society, Manitoba Animal Alliance, and D'Arcy's Animal Rescue Centre have all explicitly called for mandatory modest adoption fees on classified sites. This is not an isolated position—numerous humane societies consistently advocate against free pet listings due to the risks involved. Would you be willing to reconsider your cat posting policy in light of these expert recommendations?

Kijiji Canada: Regarding recent developments with free cat listings, we are proactively engaging our SPCA partners to seek guidance on revising our cat listing policy. We remain flexible and committed to aligning our policies with the recommendations of our animal welfare partners.

Barbara: While you state that you are committed to reviewing policies to comply with legal obligations should legislation change, there are existing laws being violated on your platform. Canadian law requires registration papers for the sale of purebred dogs; selling purebred dogs without papers is illegal. Yet, multiple ads on Kijiji are doing exactly this (see attached examples). Moreover, legal precedents highlight the serious nature of illegal animal sales on Kijiji. In 2023, the Ontario Court convicted three individuals for illegal sales of Species at Risk on Kijiji, followed by another conviction for similar violations.

Kijiji Canada: Our compliance with the Animal Pedigree Act is rigorous. When "purebred" is used for unregistered dogs, we have established protocols to identify and remove such listings. While our automated systems are highly effective, there may be rare instances where a small percentage of non-compliant listings temporarily appear before removal.

Barbara: Given these concerns, would you consider implementing human moderation to review pet ads for compliance before publication?

Kijiji Canada: Our moderation approach is comprehensive:

All listings undergo automated screening

Flagged listings receive manual review

Potentially policy-violating content is promptly investigated and removed

We are dedicated to maintaining Kijiji as a safe, trustworthy platform by continuously evolving our content moderation capabilities.