To be annoyed people still buy/sell animals on gumtree

[lastqueenofscotland]

A girl who I am friendly with has proudly announced yesterday she went to see a dog she saw on gumtree... spotted it and went to see it the same day. Designer cross breed. Never owned a dog, works full time, didn't see any parents of the puppy, literally turned up, thought it was cute handed over the money and took it home. Owns nothing for the dog...
now 24 later panicking about what the poor 9 week old thing is going to do home alone for 10 hours a day
Aibu to wonder why the hell people STILL do this?!

Thats how they get rid of old breeding stock. A rescued animal is one that came from a reputable rescue, not one your bought.

Oh no that poor puppy OP.

I once called a man selling kittens on Gumtree, because he had obviously not bothered to notice the raging eye infection one of the poor mites had :( shameful.

You see a lot of farmers around the area I'm in regularly turf out £10 or £20 kittens, otherwise you'd be paying £450 for a kitten that 'comes from a purebred line' yet isn't vaccinated or registered .

My mother owns 2 Persians she obtained from Gumtree (not from the breeders). Only one actually came with the papers promised and promptly needed £300 worth of veterinary attention. Both were matted to fuck, and had been neglected by people who hadn't considered they would require grooming, so they sold them on when they couldn't be bothered anymore.

Unfortunately buying these cats only encourages these people. If it costs £500 but it's not vaccinated, chipped, spayed, vet checked or registered then WHAT are you paying for?

Thats how they get rid of old breeding stock.

Ok, I don't think our three-year old moggie whose vet records showed he was neutered at four months was ex-breeding stock... I'm not saying it's ideal, or that it should be encouraged. But the PP you're having a go at for saying she 'rescued' them was saying that there are genuinely very few rescue shelters for small mammals, and that for a lot of people it's Gumtree or a pet shop, and it's really not clear that the latter is better. I do think it would be better to address the reasons that people are using sites like Gumtree, such as finding it hard to get a shelter to take a pet in the case of genuine need to rehome, than to go for blanket condemnations.

Facebook are slowly cracking down. If there is an animal on a sale site, you can report the post as an animal available for sale. Doesn't stop the people buying or selling them though.

To be honest I judge anyone who gets 'designer' cats, regardless of where from. I understand it with dogs, where breed affects temperament to such a large degree, but with cats it really does seem to be paying more for something that 'looks pretty', which I think is pretty indefensible even if you're going to a responsible breeder.

I can report some FB posts as selling animals but other times it doesn't give me the option
I would never shop for a pet online. Nor would I advertise one. You have no idea who you are buying from or selling to.
No animal should end up on scumtree.

It should be illegal, there are so many unscrupulous breeders out there and the animals advertised as "free to good home" I have no idea where some of them could end up.... If the online selling of animals stopped, would it reduce the amount in rescues? Possibly so.
I don't agree with pet shops selling animals either, the conditions are just so wrong.
I once saw someone asking for a female kitten as a friend for their male kitten on Freecycle. Needless to say I reported that and it was taken down.
Gumtree and has it's place but no animals should be bought or sold on it.

Margaret you clearly don't know much about cats if you think breed doesn't affect temperament and behaviour.

I have a half bred and her personality is cracking. Just in line with the breed standard. Safe with the kids, placid, chilled out. I've owned cats all my life, and after her I can say hands down she's a totally different class of cat to the moggies I grew up with and adored.

And yes, she's a beauty. I do still stop and look at her gorgeous colours and beautiful clear eyes and marvel at her.

Disclaimer: some cats are assholes no matter what the breed.

@Woolfrei I've previously reported entire groups dedicated to selling animals to Facebook ("Pets4Sale Leeds" etc) but I've been told that they groups don't contravene community guidelines or whatever the fb rules are called nowadays. Facebook's moderation is shaky, to put it politely.

With reference to previous posts, it's usually pretty easy to tell which are genuine - I avoid any referred to as babies, and any where there are multiple listings at the same time as both indicate BYB. With small animals, very often the ad will say something like kids got bored, haven't got time for animal, moving house etc etc and it will be FTGH or a token sum (e.g. £5 inc cage, which is far less than the cage alone would have cost them, so they're clearly not turning a profit). I wouldn't buy a dog on Scumtree - totally different kettle of fish as there's so much more that can go wrong, particularly with behavioural issues that may take a while to manifest.

It's difficult to know what the answer is though, as people will find a, way round if.

People I know who have got cats from gumtree did so because shelters would turn them fun coz they're in flats, so no outdoor access and / or renting. Whilst you can argue that cats should be able to go outdoors these particular cats are much better off with my friends as owners compared to where they came from (one of them nearly died).

I think shelters need to be more realistic, and let people in flats take cats so long as they seem responsible, surely that's still better than languishing in a cage in a shelter?

Making neutering much more affordable somehow I hope would mean fewer unwanted animals as well.