Ebay is allowing pets to be sold through their classified ads. Tell them to stop.

When it comes to puppy mill regulation, there’s a giant loophole that allows commercial breeders to stay off of the USDA’s radar: internet sales. And when it comes to finding anything you want online, people frequently go to eBay.

Breeders aren’t allowed to put puppies up for auction on eBay. About five years ago, the company planned to open up a live animals category. Online puppy sales not only attract puppy mills and irresponsible backyard breeders, but if you’re shipping a puppy across the country based on an eBay sale, you don’t really know who is at the other end or what they’ll do with the animal. That’s why no responsible breeder or rescuer would sell an animal on a site like eBay.

There were good intentions behind the idea — pet supply sales were doing so well, that eBay assumed people would want to see pets for sale, too. They assumed wrong. ”The feedback was pretty overwhelming,” spokesman Hani Durzy told SFGate at the time. “Farms and for-profit commercial breeders wasn’t something that [eBay users] wanted to see.” So, eBay stuck to their no live animals policy on auctions.

But then eBay Classifieds came along, and apparently the company forgot that people didn’t want to see live animals for sale on their site.

Last weekend, the blog Two Little Cavaliers put a spotlight on the issue, calling out eBay for using their classified section to get around their own rules and the complaints they’ve received over the years about animal auctions.

According to Two Little Cavaliers, eBay claims that they have safeguards in place to protect the animals. But unless eBay is inspecting all of the operations listing pets for sale (because we know the USDA is not), and unless they’re doing home visits on all of the people buying, how could they possibly protect the animals?

The answer: They can’t. They’ve given puppy mills a huge, unregulated platform to peddle cruelty. And it seems that they’re hoping animal advocates won’t notice.

It doesn’t help eBay’s claim that they have safeguards in place when their sponsored links on the pet pages include PuppyFind.com (“Over 50,ooo Puppies for Sale — Shipped Worldwide!”), which has been the target of consumer complaints and anti-puppy mill advocates for years.

Join the network of pet bloggers who have taken up this cause, and tell eBay to shut down the live animals section of their classifieds. Ebay has listened to public outrage in the past, and once again, they need to hear that live animals shouldn’t be sold anywhere on their site.

From Change.org

PETA  just released to the public more graphic footage and photos from their undercover investigation of Sun Pet Ltd., an Atlanta-based wholesale animal dealer that supplies animals to PETCO, PetSmart, Petland, and Pet Supplies Plus stores, among others.

Despite this disturbing video footage, hundreds of your e-mails and phone calls, and a great deal of media attention focused on the case, Fulton County district attorney, Paul L. Howard Jr., has still not filed cruelty-to-animals charges against anyone at Sun Pet. He hasn’t even filed charges against the woman we showed you last week who bashed a bag of live hamsters against a table and left at least one to pant and suffer for several minutes before dying.

Howard’s office has had this video—and much more evidence—for more than two months, but it seems that he has halted the investigation of animal suffering at Sun Pet. Had anyone in Fulton County bagged and bashed puppies or kittens, they would have been held accountable weeks ago.  Howard is an elected official, so your voice is critical!

Please, even if you have already done so, e-mail Howard and ask him what is cruelty to animals in Fulton County if not slamming a bag full of small animals against a table and leaving those who survive the impact to suffocate and die slowly of trauma and injuries? Tell him you hope that he is not being swayed by the powerful pet-trade industry to ignore animal abuse in Fulton County. Please also call Howard at 404-612-4982. You can also write to him at:

The Honorable Paul L. Howard Jr.
District Attorney
Fulton County District Attorney’s Office
136 Pryor St. S.W., 3rd Fl.
Atlanta, GA 30303

Every call, letter, and e-mail counts, so please share this information with your family and friends right away.