Hello,

This petition is regarding Craigslist, a popular website for selling and purchasing items, discovering and advertising services, finding jobs, and more. Craigslist allows people to rehome animals and pets they can no longer keep on it. People are technically not allowed to sell animals on Craigslist, but they are allowed to post their animals for rehoming so they can find a potential adopter. Unfortunately, this feature has been exploited for years and has created loopholes for animal abuse and cruelty to slip through.

Backyard breeders (also called BYBs) and pet mills (commonly called puppy mills) are breeders that often abuse the animals (usually dogs and cats, but sometimes other animal types) that are used for breeding. The animals are bred over and over, usually until they die or cannot breed (then they're dumped or euthanized) and are deprived of veterinary care, adequate food, and clean water. They often never get to play or run around like they should be allowed to. Some mills and BYBs own nearly 1,000 animals at any given time, all being abused for breeding and profit. The sold offspring of the bred animals is often terminally ill or under-socialized. BYBs and mills are much different from reputable breeders, which provide proper care and socialization to their animals. When people buy from BYBs and mills, they directly support them (even if accidentally), allowing them to continue breeding (and abusing) animals. You can research BYBs and mills further if you wish, just search a query like "backyard breeders" or "puppy mills".

Now, how is any of this info related to Craigslist? Well, BYBs and mills use Craigslist as a place to sell their pets (note that genuine reputable breeders almost never use Craigslist to sell their animals and instead often have buyers lined up before the litter is even born, as they care about the welfare of the animals as they go into their new homes; BYBs and mills only care about profit). Craigslist explicitly states in their prohibited items list that, and I quote, "pet sales (re-homing with small adoption fee ok), animal parts, stud service" are not allowed. However, rehoming is allowed, so BYBs and mills label their ads as "rehoming" the animals they bred. It's not like they have an "oops" litter or an animal they can't keep that they need to rehome. They are intentionally breeding animals and disguising it as rehoming! You can tell in many of the Craigslist ads that the animals are kept in non-sanitary conditions. Not all are kept in such conditions but often are not cared for properly (they often lack full veterinary care). The ad details are also far too vague (like "Cute pups available for rehoming!" or "3 [puppies] left Text me at [removed] for more info"; these were actual Craigslist ads btw). The details are much more vague than a reputable breeder would provide.

Not to mention that many Craigslist ads are completely fake, and buyers are scammed and don't receive an animal at all.

You can simply search up "sick pet from craigslist" or "craigslist puppy mill" or even "craigslist pet scam" and see personal accounts of furious buyers who bought ill or even dying animals or were scammed.

As you can see, this Rehoming feature that was supposed to be for good (helping to rehome animals) has clearly been abused by irresponsible breeders. Technically, the breeders are not breaking Craigslist's rules since they're labeling their ads as "rehoming" ads.

With all this abuse of the rehoming feature and the harm done to the animals involved, I suggest that Craigslist bans animal rehoming altogether. No more scams and less puppy mills. Good examples Craigslist should follow include Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp (disclaimer: I am not sponsored by nor advertising these sites), as they do not allow any pet selling or rehoming. However, Facebook Marketplace does allow verified shelters/rescues to rehome their pets on it, which is good for animal welfare (Craigslist can choose to implement a similar feature if they want; however, the point of this petition is to end general animal rehoming on Craigslist).

There are many websites such as Rescue Me! and Adopt-a-Pet out there that allow true animal-rehoming people to rehome their animal (these sites also do not permit disguised or obvious breeder ads) and only exist for rehoming, so people actually rehoming their animals would still have resources available.

Removing the rehoming feature from Craigslist wouldn't strip people of being able to rehome unwanted animals, it would simply remove a giant source of visibility and income to irresponsible breeders. If said irresponsible breeders were not funded, they'd be forced to stop abusively breeding animals and likely give them away for free. No more abuse. No more cruelty.

Please sign this petition! It's free and will make a difference for abused and neglected animals everywhere. Thank you for your time!