Animal advocates, particularly those working on banning the retail sale of dogs, cats and other animals in pet stores have been often confronted with the issue that Kijiji, an on-line retailer of many things, including puppies, sells dogs from what appear to be puppy mills (i.e. USDA breeders with hundreds of dogs).
Barbara Lapointe, an advocate for banning the sale of mill-sourced puppies in Canada, is taking on the Kijiji issue upfront and center. Below, Barbara writes about her work to address the Kijiji conundrum.
Kijiji Canada is ignoring me and the 35,000 people who signed this petition and told me that they will continue to do what they have done over the last few years – rely on animal welfare groups to identify users of concern, prevent possible puppy mills, or unscrupulous breeders.
I think that it shouldn’t be up to the public and animal welfare organizations to monitor Kijiji’s ads. If Kijiji feels the need to rely on the public to identify problematic ads, it means there is a problem, which is that puppy mill operators are in fact posting on Kijiji. And not to mention the fact that the time these animal welfare groups spend trying to stop puppy mills selling on Kijiji, they are not spending it on educational and lifesaving programs.
I believe that at this point, Kijiji Canada cares about what animal welfare groups feel about allowing both adoptions and sales on their website.
If you work at or volunteer at an animal welfare or rescue group, send Barbara an email at barbara@arabrab.com regarding how they feel about allowing both adoptions and sales on Kijiji Canada. Barbara will pass it along to Shawn McIntyre, Community Relations manager at Kijiji Canada.
Please sign the petition at http://www.change.org/kijiji
Christie Lagally 
Leave a Reply