Allow Pet Sales on Craigslist

Craigslist (www.craigslist.org) was originally developed to bring a sense of community to San Fransisco by a very smart man, Craig Newmark. Craigslist has now spread far and wide across the world with new people visiting every single day.



Upon the growing popularity, Craig & his staff devised a system of community moderation called "Flags". An undetermined (only staff knows how many) "flags" will remove a post determined so by the community. Normally this process would seem ingenious and while keeping the low cost of overhead to a minimum, also involves the community to moderate.



Craigslist is mostly a free classified ad website that charges in a few cities for jobs and real estate. Craigslist does not sell advertising space. They made 21 million last year alone. They have 21 employees including Craig Newmark.



The one part of Craigslist that suffers from flagging is the Pets Section under the Community category.



The official Terms Of Use (TOU) written by Craigslist is:



*******************************************************************************************************************

Animals and animal parts, including the retail sales of cats and dogs are prohibited on Craigslist. Rehoming with small adoption fee OK.

*******************************************************************************************************************



There are many issues that need clarification regarding this specific TOU.

1) Does "animal parts" include semen which would also include stud ads?

2) Does "retail" mean specifically pet stores and puppy mills?

3) Who determines what a "small adoption fee" is? Cost of living is completely different from Idaho to Florida.



Animal Activists, Rescue/Shelter Workers and others have formed a group to flag certain ads that violate their interpretation of the TOU.



The unfortunate problem with this is that the general community that is supposed to be the "voice" of Craigslist does not agree to the extreme interpretation.



Why do these few people that feel this strongly on the pet issue get to monitor every city listed on Craigslist?



Craigslist Terms Of Use say to only post in your local area, but why do these few animal activists get to monitor outside of their local area?



Who gets to decide what "small adoption fee" means? Because many of the "Pet Flaggers" work for shelters and rescues they feel that "small" means comparable with a shelter or rescue, but no more than $100.



Many of these "Pet Flaggers" are very educated regarding pet overpopulation, backyard breeding and puppy mills. The General Community is not nearly as educated nor do a majority of them care to be. Pet overpopulation drives the "Pet Flaggers" to flag off many animals that are able to reproduce. Nowhere in the Craigslist Terms Of Use does it say that the spay/neuter status of an animal is in violation. Many people do not spay/neuter for a variety of reasons - from health to age to income.



Due to the "Pet Flaggers" knowledge of pet overpopulation they also feel that ANY puppy ads on Craigslist also need to be removed. Again, nowhere in the Craigslist Terms of Use does it state that adopting puppies out is in violation.



For more than 2 years the general community of Craigslist has been fighting back against these "Pet Flaggers" to no avail. They continue to flag off legit adoptions because of their own personal beliefs. These arguments have got to be some of the worse that the Internet in general have ever seen. They turn puppy sellers into the IRS, the Humane Societies and harass people on-line relentlessly.



They are vocal, organized and feel extremely strongly on this subject.



The "Pet Flaggers" are also providing Craigslist with an increase in page hits. When an ad is flagged off by the "Pet Flaggers" the page presented to the poster is to repost the ad if you feel you were wrongly flagged. This circle continues endlessly, just increasing the page hits for Craigslist. Page hits are important because if/when Craigslist decides to sell advertising space they can ask for more money determined by page hits.



Are you seeing the problem yet?



Every other on-line classified website allows pet sales. Why not this one?



****************************************************************************************

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION IN SUPPORT OF ALLOWING PET SALES ON CRAIGSLIST.

****************************************************************************************



Problem solved.