January 6, 2014

Mr. Jim Buckmaster
Craigslist, Inc.
1381 9th Avenue
San Francisco, CA. 94122.

Dear Mr. Buckmaster,

It appears that the “puppy doe” incident is taking me on quite a journey of discovery which will hopefully lead to a better life for many animals. As you know from the first letter I sent you on October 10, 2013, I started an online petition asking your company to re-think your policies on pet ads. 360,000 people signed this petition showing the concern that the puppy doe case brought into focus. At that time, I gave several recommendations that I thought might help lower the chances of an incident of this type reoccurring.

I read your response on the Craigslist blog in September. I was happy to read that Craigslist is filled with people who love animals including yourself. I generally find that most sane and caring people love their pets and want the best for all animals.

Our difference was related to the challenges regarding re-homing pets. I am of the opinion that it is important to put as many safeguards into the process as is practical. I realize that there are crazy people who are disconnected to life and do terrible things, and that no policy can safeguard against everything.

In this spirit, I have reached out to the animal care community to find out more about this issue. In particular, I found a small firm of mediator/lawyers who focus on animal related issues and they have worked with me in composing this letter as well as doing some research.

One thing we found out is that there are different points of view of how much due diligence should be done on the adopter of a pet. In Massachusetts where I live, there are many people wishing to rescue pets and give them a good home. There are a number of “no kill” shelters that have very strict requirements to adopt a pet. There are also “kill” shelters that euthanize animals if no home is found for them in a relatively short time span.

Our research has also indicated that around 9,000 animals are euthanized every day in the U.S. because they can’t find a home. This is significantly less than fifteen years ago but in my view, it is still far too many. So it raises an interesting question, should there be more or less due diligence done on dog adopters? Which approach is better for animals in general and is there a way to encourage responsible ownership?

Which brings us to Craigslist. From the point of view of finding a new home for a pet that no longer can stay in its present home, you offer a solution. Let’s even assume that without Craigslist (or other similar websites) some of these pets would not find a new home and eventually be euthanized. In that sense, the service you provide is helpful to animals.

However, the puppy doe case and similar challenging circumstances seem to call for additional care and scrutiny. I wonder if Craigslist would find it worthy to take leadership on this issue so that the likelihood of pets finding a loving new home would be increased. In my first letter, I wrote you some suggestions that seemed possible. There may be better approaches that you and your team can create. Just three weeks after I started the petition in response to puppy doe, another upsetting case of animal cruelty made the news. This case also involved Craigslist pet ads. Several news outlets (please see: http://www.wsfa.com/story/23661750/police-athens-man-had-cat-room-for-killing-kittens) reported on an Athens, Alabama man who admitted to buying kittens from Craigslist then killing them by wringing their necks. Rather than continuing to make the news for being a conduit for animal abusers, I think it would probably be good for Craigslist (as a company)and for your employees personally to be known as the company that took a stand to help pets find a new and safe home.

I believe you already draw some attention to the importance of being a responsible pet owner on your website. In addition to the proposals I already sent you, you could probably include some links in your pet section to reputable shelters’ checklists that both sellers and adopters could reference. I would be happy to create a detailed checklist or provide links to existing ones. Right now, when a Craigslist user posts a pet ad, the only warning, is a link to information from PETA which is a great start, but it’s easily overlooked. Additionally, according to your Terms of Service, Craigslist prohibits the sale of animals, yet this is ignored by many. I see dozens of examples daily where people are clearly trying to profit off of their pet.

Most important of all would be for you and Craigslist to be a leader in responsible ownership and care for pets. Craigslist is a highly creative business serving its customers in many ways. I don’t think it would surprise either of us if many (most?) of your customers were nice people who cared for pets. Based on the positive feedback I received since I started the petition, I would imagine that your customer base would be most pleased to see you take this position.

Thank you for considering this proposal. I look forward to hearing from you either on your blog or directly.

Sincerely,

Joyel Ennis www.puppydoekiya.com
David Feldman & Norm Sherman www.forevercaremediation.com