Tuesday, July 05, 2005
craig@craigslist.org
The Craigslist Memo. The Craigslist situation. Craig craig craig craig craig.How can we have such a love-hate relationship with Craigslist? We love:
- Posting animals online for adoption.
- Recruiting volunteers to help care for the animals.
- Telling the public about our events.
- Promoting responsible pet ownership.
- Offering FREE spay and neuter surgery to those who need it.
- The irresponsible selling of unaltered dogs, cats and rabbits, who reproduce at rates we can't imagine.
- The greed evident in people selling litters for profit without regard for the health or future of the animals they sell.
- Hearing one more time, "I figured I could just sell them on Craigslist and make a few thousand...."
- The obvious abuses: The female dogs enduring litter after litter, and kept in small pens awaiting the next pay off, or her uterus tearing open, whichever goes first. The poor temperaments of dogs bred sometimes to dogs even in their own line -- in-breeding -- creating generations of disturbed, anxious and dangerous dogs. The puppies yanked from mothers too early, ensuring they spend a life tied up in the back yard because they are poorly socialized. The disposable cats left to fend for themselves, and reproduce by the thousands in just a few years.
- The uneducated public, who can't see farther than the immediate gratification of getting their new puppy or kitten today without considering what got it there.
- But most of all, we hate cleaning up after all the unwanted animals, those that got too big, too old, too untrained, too inconvenient or too "not-what-I-expected". And those that are too dangerous and need to be euthanized.
Craig Newmark may not end up changing his site to accomodate the environment he's created, but if he chooses not to, he's not going to be able to claim ignorance. It will be a conscious decision.
If you'd like to read more about The Craigslist Situation visit our website. Send Craig a (polite) letter, too. That's his email address up there.
