The Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) has called classified adverts website DoneDeal to remove its animal section, saying it facilitates an unacceptable volume of puppy trading.
The animal welfare organisation said it met with senior management from DoneDeal and another website this week to outline its concerns over the extent of unregulated dog trading.
In a statement, the DSPCA said it had called on DoneDeal to remove its animal selling section from its website with immediate effect.
“The DSPCA felt this was appropriate so as to provide time to implement adequate controls for the online selling of animals. The DSPCA offered its assistance in developing these controls. We note, with disappointment, that DoneDeal has declined our recommendation,” the organisation said in a statement.
It also urged other animal welfare agencies who advertise on the website to cease from doing so immediately and instead “join in with the DSPCA in alerting the general public of the significant animal welfare issues that sites such as these foster”.
However other animal organisations and DoneDeal itself have said it would be more constructive if the parties worked together to curb illegal selling.
Responding to the comments, the website said dog trading would be driven underground if it removed its animals section.
“The DSPCA calling on DoneDeal to cease all sales of animals on our site would actually drive the market underground and make it very difficult to track down those who sell animals illegally,” said the company’s chief executive John Warburton in a statement.
Mr Warburton added that DoneDeal takes specific measures to prevent itself being exploited by rogue dog traders.
“For example, we don’t allow ads that mention or imply that dogs should kill other animals, we don’t allow ads that mention Christmas, and we don’t allow ads for shipping animals. We identify best practices for the sale of dogs on classified sites and are currently meeting and exceeding the Pet Advertising Advisory Group standards set in the UK.”
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said working closely with DoneDeal was a better way of bringing up animal welfare standards than asking the site to remove its animals section.
“This is the real world and the internet is here to stay,” said the organisation’s chief executive Andrew Kelly. He added that dogs would still be traded over the internet whether DoneDeal facilitated it or not.
“We work very closely with DoneDeal to ensure that the standard of advertising is as high as it should be,” he said. He also said an advisory group would be set up in the future to consider the question of online animal trading.
