The CCTV footage of the dog callously abandoned in Stoke on Trent by the side of the road was shocking but unfortunately there’s been more cruelty cases in Stoke-on-Trent. A Jack Russell was found dead under a bridge, covered in sores and urine scald burns. He is believed to have spent most of his life in a cage. He died in the ditch where he was dumped just after Christmas. Last Wednesday 2 January an almost bald Staffie with a severe mite infection was found near a busy road one or two days after giving birth. Her puppies are unlikely to survive.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/1067347/dog-abandoned-dumped-stoke-rspca
Early December, a pregnant bulldog aged between 2 and 4 years old was abandoned in a London alleyway. She was found in a filthy crate with no bedding and covered in plastic. She had an eye injury and was covered in faeces. She is thought to have been used as a breeding machine and was fighting for her life when she was rescued.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/1056864/dog-news-dumped-giving-birth
3 puppies thought to be about 11 weeks old were found abandoned in the Forest of Dean on 29 December. 4 other dogs were found in that forest in December and have not been claimed.
8 young guinea pigs were found in Wales between Christmas and New Year. All with similar markings and seem to be related.
Rabbits were also found. Rabbits are regularly found as ‘stray’ although most of them are dumped. Domestic rabbits abandoned outside cannot adapt and have pretty much zero chance of survival unless they are rescued.
Abandoning an animal is a criminal offence. Those people shouldn’t get away with it. Some of the cruelty cases above are beyond belief but it just shows that some people will abuse animals, then discard them. Those unscrupulous breeders use the classified ad platforms anonymously to sell their ‘stock’ where they can easily get away with animal cruelty.
Those pet selling websites should take a good look at their involvement in this issue and stop allowing just anyone to advertise animals for free.
The RSPCA say December is the busiest time. Last December more than 55,800 calls came through to the charity’s cruelty hotline.
The pet trade issues are huge, but all this petition is asking is for those selling sites to do their bit to prevent more animals suffering from being bred or sold for Christmas.
So far only Pets4Homes have replied saying they’re looking into it. Preloved sent a careless response which I shared in a previous update. Shpock tweeted back that they cared but were not even aware of the breeders on their site (!?). No response from Gumtree and nothing from Friday-Ad either.
They cannot ignore over 109,000 people!!
There will be more emails and tweets in the next few days. If you would like to support and RT, you can follow us @babbacampaign.
Please also get in touch with the RSPCA if you have any information that could help them find those responsible for the cases above.
Thank you!
Isabelle Rineau
BaBBA Campaign (Ban all Baby Bunny Ads)
https://www.facebook.com/BabbaCampaign