I belong to a number of groups on Social media who share a love of Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Pedigree dogs. I also belong to various groups involved in charitable donations to dog rescue centres. Additionally these groups and others volunteer their time to help find and collect the dogs and transport them to safety, to rescue centres and foster homes. Through these groups I have become aware of numerous incidents involving:

'free to good home' and other ads on selling sites such as Gumtree, Preloved, Pets4homes, Vivastreet, freeads and others. The adverts often depict pictures of dogs who are quite clearly neglected, sickly or clearly unwanted. As an example, one such advert stated :

'dog must go tonight £60, text asap' The dog was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. As soon as I used the report ad feature, it was removed and that is all Gumtree do. I have reported various incidents of fake adverts for dogs and all i am told is :

'We work closely with animal welfare organisations'

Some of the kind hearted people who have paid the money to get the dog away from its clearly uncaring owner, have later discovered that it was stolen and sold on through these sites.

There have also been numerous incidents where dog and other pet abusers have set up Facebook groups and used their statuses to buy and sell sick puppies. As soon as they are closed another opens up.

There are also people who have named and shamed various individuals who are known to be involved in the abuse of animals. This has raised awareness and helped get evidence against them.

This method clearly works  and i feel that it serves two purposes- firstly it may act as a deterrant and raise awareness of the issue. Secondly it may help gather evidence for the appropriate authorities

it also very clear that the laws against pet abuse need to be toughened.