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  • Geebo 9:28 am on October 18, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Clark County, , , Puppy Mills   

    Nevada county trying to crack down on puppy mills 

    Nevada county trying to crack down on puppy mills

    Previously, we’ve discussed many times in the why Geebo does not accept listings for pet. Geebo CEO Greg Collier has gone on record to state that he didn’t want Geebo to be an avenue for puppy mills. The ASPCA defines a puppy mill as “a large-scale commercial dog breeding operation where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs.” Now, a county in Nevada is trying to put a stop to these cruel operations.

    Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, is trying to introduce legislation designed to curtail illegal breeders and puppy mills within their county. You would think that this would be met with universal approval, but nothing is ever that simple. You’d be surprised how many people want a certain breed of no dog no matter how that dog was bred and pet stores claim that this will limit them on where they can purchase their animals from. Opponents to the legislation also derided shelters and rescue groups claiming those animals can’t be trusted.

    Shelter and rescue pets get an unfair stigma because a number of people think that they all have behavior problems. In reality a puppy mill dog is more likely to have behavior problems as they’re often inbred to the point where it can cause mental and physical defects that often result in behavioral issues.

    Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani also had a word of advice for people looking to buy a puppy online.

    “There are some other things that we need to work on,” Giunchigliani said. “What we want is to educate people to never buy animals off of Craigslist. They are almost always coming from a puppy mill in another state.”

    If you’re really looking to buy a purebred dog, always make sure that the breeder is licensed and check out the facilities to make sure they’re not abusing their animals. Also please consider adopting a dog from a rescue group or shelter and possibly even adopt an older dog as they often have a hard time finding new homes.

     

  • Geebo 8:48 am on September 27, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Puppy Mills,   

    The online puppy scam is back 

    The online puppy scam is back

    Geebo CEO Greg Collier has spoken in the past about why Geebo does not take listings for pets. It’s mostly because of puppy mills that put the needs for profit over the welfare of the animals. In too many cases where people purchase a dog online from one of these puppy mills, the animal often turns out to be grievously ill. There’s also another reason not to purchase pets online and it seems to be making the rounds again.

    It’s known as the Cameroon Puppy Scam because the scam mostly originates from the African country of Cameroon. The scammers will post ads on other online marketplaces advertising popular breeds at cut-rate prices. Of course, the scammers will ask you to wire them the money for the purchase of the pet which you should absolutely never do. Often the scammer is happy to take your money and disappear leaving you with no dog to show for it. However, the more bold scammer will try to milk you for more money claiming things like delivery fees and insurance and if you don’t pay these ‘fees’ the scammers will threaten to send the FBI after you for what they claim is animal abandonment. Remember, this is all over an animal which probably doesn’t even exist.

    Instead of trying to purchase a pet online, think about adopting a pet from your local shelter. This way you not only avoid the puppy mill but you get to interact with your potential future pet before taking them home. Never purchase a pet sight unseen. It can spell bad news for both you and your furry friend while animal abusers and scammers continue to make money.

     

  • Geebo 10:10 am on May 12, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Puppy Mills   

    Is getting a pet online animal cruelty? 

    Getting or giving away pets online is animal cruelty

    In the past Geebo founder and CEO Greg Collier had discussed why Geebo does not accept ads for pets. In his initial post Greg discussed the puppy mills and how the animals that come from puppy mills and how the animals receive inadequate medical treatment. For example a Florida man recently purchased a puppy online and the puppy already had the lethal parvovirus.

    Another reason Geebo does not accept pet ads is the number of animal abusers that seem to troll ads looking for victims.

    Even another reason not to deal with pets online is a phenomenon known as ‘dog flipping’. In the real estate business you may have heard the term house flipping. That’s when someone buys a house at low market value for the sole purpose of selling it for a profit. Dog flippers have the same intent except they’re not paying anything for the dogs in the first place. They look for ‘free to good home’ ads, going as so far to pretend to have kids and a family in order to persuade sellers, then try to sell the animals for profit to the highest bidder.

    Please deal instead with your local shelters. Not only do they have a number of animals that are in need of adoption, more no-kill shelters are opening all the time that can help find a pet a legitimate new home.

     

  • Greg Collier 10:46 am on July 8, 2014 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , dog fighting, , , , , Puppy Mills, spca   

    Free to a Good Home? A Bad Idea Online! 

    nopetsAny business owner needs to stay ahead of the trends, and unfortunately, that applies to trends in crime. I’ve said before in blog posts and TV interviews that we don’t carry personals because they can be used as a front for prostitution and human trafficking. We don’t carry pet sale ads, as they often trade in animals that have been bred through puppy mills—breeders who literally breed animals to death, leaving them undernourished and caged without proper exercise or loving contact. We simply won’t even take a chance at supporting criminal industries, so we don’t run the ads that market them.  
     
    Recent stories are showing that it’s not just online pet sales that can pose a threat to pets, but online pet adoptions, as well—often posted by well-meaning folks, under the heading, Free to a Good Home. Ads giving away dogs, cats, bunnies, and other animals to “good” homes may be posted by owners for a number of benign reasons, though they may lead to a life of pain and misery, and even death, for pets. 
     
    Remember the days of summers past when you’d ride down the street of your neighborhood in the back of your parent’s Pontiac or Buick, probably without a seat belt, and definitely without a car seat? You might pass a lemonade stand or a kid and his mom or dad on the corner with a cardboard box reading, “Kittens For Sale,” or, if you were really lucky, “Free Kittens.” No one thought anything of it. We survived, and for all we knew, so did our pets. But if not monitored, the reality of today’s digital marketplace can be a whole lot scarier for animals, just as it is for humans.
     
    The SPCA reports that animal abusers troll online classified sites looking for free animals, and they know just what to say to put unsuspecting pet owners at ease. Some abusers have even brought unrelated children to meet pets and pet owners in an effort to appear nonthreatening. Small animals offered “free to a good home” or to be “rehomed,” such as rabbits and cats, have been used as live snake food. Dogs have been found used as bait to train other dogs for dogfights. And crooks or kill buyers sell these free animals to research facilities or for slaughter.
     
    It’s not just household pets that face danger: While slaughtering horses for meat is illegal in the United States, it’s not in some other countries, such as neighboring Canada and Mexico. Kill buyers can often outbid adopters, and have taken advantage of the financial downturn to buy up horses on the cheap for transport and slaughter for meat. This poses a serious health risk to humans, as horses in the US are considered companion animals, and as such are often medically treated with drugs toxic to humans.
     
    A pet is a member of the family. Be sure you’re financially and emotionally prepared to keep companion animals—healthily—for the duration of their lifetime. Though if you must rehome for an unavoidable reason, it’s simply not safe to give away or sell animals to strangers via online ads without conducting strict home assessments and background checks. Most folks aren’t equipped for that, so volunteers at the SPCA suggest that anyone looking to rehome a pet work through their personal networks first—friends, neighbors, coworkers, church groups, their vet’s office etc.—maybe that’s why the neighborhood “Kittens For Sale” seemed to work fine back in the day? We all knew each other! 

    If your personal network doesn’t yield a reliable home, a reputable rescue group or shelter with good statistics in rehoming animals can help. Doing the right thing by your pet may take a little longer, may require just a bit more time and attention, but their health and safety is in your hands, and it’s worth it. We care about your family as we do our own, and that includes your pets. That’s why we don’t run Free to a Good Home ads at Geebo, and we hope you won’t anywhere else.

     

    • Theresa Dixon 4:08 pm on August 25, 2014 Permalink

      Very good advice. I try to tell everyone I know about this very thing. Spread the word.

  • Greg Collier 1:30 pm on January 15, 2013 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , International Fund for Animal Welfare, , , Puppy Mills   

    Geebo’s “No Pets” Policy: Animal Lovers Understand Why 

    Everyone loves a puppy – but you won’t find any for sale on Geebo.

    It’s not that we don’t love puppies. It’s because we love puppies, kittens and other animals that we won’t allow animals to be sold on our site. You see, we learned years ago about puppy mills, the commercial breeders that sometimes put profits over the welfare of the animals themselves, and made a decision that we would not provide a marketplace platform for these breeders.

    Now, a report released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, finds that the majority of the puppies advertised for sale over the Internet are from commercial puppy mills where dogs are raised in unsanitary conditions without adequate food or water or even veterinary care.

    The organization tracked ads on a number of online sites and found that, among the hundreds of thousands of ads on those sites, the vast majority of animals were from mills. The group looked at a number of factors, including pups under eight weeks old being offered for sale, more than 20 puppies being advertised in a single post or the use of sale slogans such as “Christmas Pets.” In some instances, as many as 62 percent were believed to be from puppy mills.

    Certainly, we aren’t looking for validation for our business decisions in this report. But it’s a telling tale of what’s happening in the classifieds industry, all for the sake of money made from those advertisements. The report reads, in part:

    Dogs are not just another commodity to be purchased from an anonymous seller online. They are living, breathing, thinking creatures that can experience happiness and suffering. And the Internet is unfortunately a platform ripe for exploiting these animals. Remember that each click to purchase a dog over the Internet could be building incentive for a puppy mill breeder to continue their operations.

    Geebo is already known for taking strong stances around the types of ads we accept. We’ve called on other sites to follow our lead in taking steps to stop online human trafficking by refusing to accept personals ads. We consider this issue around the sale of puppies to be just as important.

    I realize that it’s unusual – or even unwise, from a business perspective – for the operator of a classified advertising site to refuse so many types of ads that could prove lucrative for the company. But I didn’t start Geebo to become a forum for the transactions of the underworld, a marketplace for any living creature, whether an immigrant forced into the world of slave labor or prostitution or a harmless pup who may someday bring joy to an animal lover – but is forced to live in cruel conditions until that day comes.

    If that means I lose business over my moral values, then so be it.

     

    • Erik Berry 2:00 pm on January 15, 2013 Permalink

      Good for you Greg! Puppy mills are run by greedy avaricious people and don’t deserve to use your platform for profit!

    • Alicia Shalhoup 3:58 pm on January 15, 2013 Permalink

      This is just another reason I love Geebo (and you!)!!

    • OCPoundhounds Small Breed Rescue 12:34 pm on March 7, 2013 Permalink

      Thank goodness you and your company is making a stand on dog “rehoming” adverts on Geebo!!

    • Sandra 12:28 am on June 8, 2013 Permalink

      So glad you do not let people post ad’s that are selling pets. :-):-)

    • Rosetta 5:43 am on August 14, 2013 Permalink

      Thank you for taking a stand against the exploitation of animal cruelty on your website! So wish many other organizations would follow suit!

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