July
#reggieslaw petition
The Justice for Reggie Campaign petition - #reggieslaw was set up on June 7th 2021 to regulate online animal sales. Given how many animals are currently sold online, we want the Government to introduce regulation of all websites where animals are sold. Websites should be required to verify the identity of all sellers, and for young animals for sale, pictures with their parents to be posted with all listings. We believe in our 10 golden rules that our Animal Welfare Alliance websites have on their sites, which you can find in the 'buying a puppy' tab on our website.
Regulating online animal sales will stop the illegal breeders and sellers from using websites under different names and addresses. Animals being sold online come with many animal welfare risks including, in most cases, the horrific conditions they are kept in. There are also more animal transport companies buying from a selling site as it is so easy, making it a low risk high reward business. Buying online comes with the same issues as buying a pair of jeans, however the difference is the jeans would be a lot easier to return than an animal! Especially if the animal purchased becomes ill, as there is no refund or exchange available. Quite often the seller is long gone as soon as they have made the sale.
When buying online, you are relying solely on the advertiser’s pictures and description for the information as you can’t visit the puppy with its mum, or see them in their original breeding environment. This makes it difficult to establish if the seller is a legitimate breeder or even a ‘hobby breeder’. They often arrange to meet somewhere like a layby or a garage, or even offer to deliver the animal for you which should be a warning sign.
Pet Advertising Advisory Groups (PAAG) have been established in the UK and Ireland for more than 15 years, and more recently in Belgium. These groups encourage websites to adopt minimum standards in animal advertising and report rogue or unethical adverts. Almost all sites that sell animals rely on users to notify them of breaches, which is even more difficult when websites lack clear animal advertising policies.
In Victoria Australia, the state government has made it mandatory to list the microchip number at the point of sale, with both the seller and website liable if a number isn’t listed. Unfortunately this is not the case in the UK and sellers can post a minimum amount of pictures, with no pictures of the puppies with their mum (or use fake mums).
We are working with selling sites within the Animal Welfare Alliance to try to raise the welfare standards of animals being sold online. The website’s work hard to ensure adverts, with very little information and very few pictures, don’t get published. The selling sites also ban any suspicious users and ensure they cannot jump from one site to another. But it is clear that stricter regulations are needed.
Regulating online animal sale’s will ensure the selling sites don’t allow users who will not give 2 different proof of addresses (for example a driving licence and house bill) an account.