It is now 3 years since I started this petition. Needless to say, if the situation was bad at the time, it is now abysmal.
It became clear during the pandemic that a huge number of people were purchasing pets on a whim without research or long-term commitment. Many of those pets have been neglected, sold on, given away, dumped at rescue centres or abandoned outside. Lots of dogs became aggressive or suffered behavioural issues due to lack of socialising. Crime has been on the increased with dog theft, online scammers, sick puppies smuggled into the country and more illegal puppy farms discovered. And here is one recent example which shows the breeder was gearing up for Christmas:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/200-dogs-rescued-puppy-farm-21643506
Last week I had a quick look on the main pet selling platforms. All of them showed adverts of animals being sold as Christmas gifts. I reported a few. I checked again earlier today and the adverts have multiplied (see pictures above). Nothing has changed in three years. Despite Pets4Homes, Gumtree, Preloved etc stating that they do not allow the advertising of animals for Christmas, all of them do. They have not tackled the problem. They are still allowing any irresponsible breeder or dealer to sell on their platforms, whilst animals are suffering, whilst rescue centres are on their knees, whilst vets are overrun, whilst most people are struggling with the pandemic.
All we hear is excuses and feeble attempts to prevent some of the advertising. It will never be good enough until it has stopped.
More than 126k people have signed this petition. Everyone seems to agree that a pet is not for Christmas but not much is done to stop the issue at the source. This despicable advertising of pets for Christmas needs to stop! Especially this year!
I would love to hear from MPs, vets, charities, celebrities, anyone with influence who agrees with this and would be willing to speak up, help draft or change the law, give a statement, write an article that I could share, or be happy to appear on a list of supporters of this cause. Please email info@babba.org if you can help further.
Please keep sharing everyone. Animals aren't Christmas gifts and shouldn't be advertised as such. Tell Pets4Homes, Gumtree, Preloved. Email them, tweet them and complain. Ask them to suspend the advertising of animals at least two weeks before Christmas.
Prevent the suffering, stop the advertising now! Promote adoptions in the new year.
Thank you!
Isabelle Rineau
Babba Campaign
www.babba.org