If you want to buy a pet, apart from the type of animal (lets talk about dogs), you really have one big decision to make:
Do I purchase a puppy or try and find a rescue dog to adopt?
Firstly lets get one thing very clear – even if you want to rescue a pet that is in a pound, rescue organisation or major pet adoption agency like the RSPCA you will have to pay. Here are no free pets through these great organisations. So when people post on our site and on our Social Media “How dare we promote the sales of pets” the other option for these organisations is to euthanize those animals. According to the Sydney Morning Herald over 250,000 dogs and cats were put down in 2010.
So a best option for those wishing to get a new pet is to buy a rescued animal from a shelter.
That’s perfect, problem solved! However a lot of people want to buy a puppy. No matter how convinced you are about the need for people to buy a rescue pet there will always be the need for the sale and purchase of puppies. This lends itself to abuse and the creation of back yard breeders who are only interested in the money, not the animals.
So here we are with an online portal to connect sellers of pets with purchasers.
We have a huge problem!
How do we enable the large percentage of new pet purchasers who want a puppy to be safe from these greedy backyard breeders. We acknowledge and know that there are some very ethical breeders who do the right thing and keep pure bred bloodlines intact and safe. We know there are breeders who love their pets and do the right thing by them. We know that there are people who’s loving pet is about to give birth to a litter that they can not keep.
So how do we as an online connection site address this?
It’s something we have given a lot of thought about as it is really hard to police – even councils and government agencies have trouble with this. However we have something that they don’t. We have the ability to ask every purchaser on our site to comment and describe the conditions, health and welfare of the pet seller they just picked their pet up from.
Good Breeders still need the ability to sell pets in a safe, secure way that looks after everyone, and every animal, involved.
We can rank every seller on our site and ban those who are not putting the welfare of their animals first. We can even report those who are doing the wrong thing. So with the right feedback we have some control and hopefully can make a difference – that is our goal, Pets above Profits.
