Your actions make a difference!
Last week, Wal-Mart launched a free online classifieds website,
walmart.oodle.com. Suddenly, thirty million ads, reaching five million consumers each month were available through Wal-Mart. This included tens of thousands of ads offering puppies, kittens, birds, horses, and every other animal imaginable for sale. Wal-Mart is not alone in offering pets for sale through classified ads; pick up any newspaper in any city, and there will likely be a full page of classified ads for pets. It is one of the most frustrating indications of our culture’s overzealous back yard pet breeding, despite the 12-13,000 animals euthanized every single day in shelters.
But, it turns out, Wal-Mart is different than the thousands of print and web outlets that help people sell their pets. Just days after the Wal-Mart Classifieds launched, people began contacting the corporate office with their concerns about the “pet for sale” ads. By last Friday, just days after the site launched, Wal-Mart had removed all the pet ads from their website.
THANK YOU WAL-MART!Wal-Mart’s decision is one of the most humane actions a large corporation has taken, and they need to hear about it! While thousands of other companies allow pet sale ads to be posted with abandon, Wal-Mart put their corporate foot down. The response from Wal-Mart reads, in part:
Given the current "beta" status of Walmart.com classifieds, we will continue to make changes to the service over the coming months. Based on the feedback you and others provided, we have removed the pets category while we evaluate how to improve pet listings in ways that serve our local communities along with the well being of animals. *
For the full statement, click here.
Because Wal-Mart has not made a no-pet sale
policy yet, they need to hear positive feedback from their customers. They need to hear from you. Take five minutes, today, to give them a call, send them an e-mail or a letter, and let them know that you appreciate their decision to remove all pet for sale listings on the Wal-Mart classified site. They are very friendly and appreciate feedback.
Corporate OfficeWal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611
479-273-4000
Click here to E-mail Wal-Mart. **(There is a drop-down menu at the top. Select “Feedback.” A second drop-down menu will appear. Select “Corporate Office.”)**
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What about the (many) other companies allowing pets for sale online?Online pet sales are a serious problem, perpetrated by hundreds, if not thousands of companies that seek to capitalize on selling puppies, kittens, birds and other animals. Ads can, and are, placed by families whose dog had a litter, and by large-scale breeders, or puppy mills. Some websites are set up just for pet ads; a quick search for pets online brings up thousands of ads. It’s a direct correlation to pet overpopulation and euthanasia.
Internet Pet Sales: Five things you can doTo view Best Friends Animal Society’s position statement for Internet pet sales,
click here.
1.) Inform businesses that support online pet sales or puppy mills of your disappointment by
downloading this form letter and customizing it as appropriate. Tell companies and websites that you will not tolerate the sale of pets and will boycott them until the policy is changed.
2.) Refuse to visit, place ads with, or buy things from websites or retailers that sell animals online or provide advertising space to sell animals online.
3.) Spread the word. Tell friends and family about the issue, and encourage them to contact the company, and to avoid shopping there.
4.) Inform the Internet Service Provider. Although it is not illegal to sell animals online, some Internet Service Providers may choose to bar the practice if enough public pressure is waged.
To make a report to the ISP, you need to determine who hosts the website. To do that, go to
www.domaintools.com, enter the website URL in the “Whois Lookup” search box and click on the search button. Scroll down the results page until you find the numerical Internet Protocol (IP) address assigned to the website. Then go to
www.arin.net (American Registry for Internet Numbers) and enter that IP address in the “Search WHOIS” box and click on the search button. The search results page will provide information about the ISP that hosts the website. The page also might display information about how to voice concerns. If it does not, go to
www.search.org/programs/hightech/isp and find the complete contact information for the ISP on the list.
5.) Learn more about the commercial pet breeding industry:
-Visit
network.bestfriends.org/truth-
Join the Network-Sign up for the Best Friends monthly newsletter,
Breeding Bytes.
Posted by Kelli Ohrtman: Best Friends Animal Society