Ebay wants to have live animal classifieds

I haven't read this whole thread but from what I know about ebay, once a person bids or does a 'buy it now" (yes you can sell things straight out instead of auctioning) you are in a legal, binding contract to sell to the person weather or not you like them or think they will provide a good home or not. In that case, no, no good breeder would get themselves into a contract to sell to someone that they have not interviewed.

Originally Posted by bengalbabe

I haven't read this whole thread but from what I know about ebay, once a person bids or does a 'buy it now" (yes you can sell things straight out instead of auctioning) you are in a legal, binding contract to sell to the person weather or not you like them or think they will provide a good home or not. In that case, no, no good breeder would get themselves into a contract to sell to someone that they have not interviewed.

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This is definatley bad! but, what I had thought was it was going to be like a classified, giving you the option to choose people who contact you. I am not agreeing with them and saying it should be done, but Ebay does do auctions and buy it now, and people assume thats how they want to do live animals, mabey it is, im not sure, I guess, but i was under the impression it's a classified ad section. I have my kittens listed in classifieds and if i think some one is shady I tell them i don't think that they are a good match for my kitten, I am a very new breeder, but i have told one person already NO. if it is a auction then I would be one of the first to leave a post telling them how dumb that is, but, thinking it is a classified and knowing ebay is very well known, then breeders would get more interested canidates to screen through. To all you who think it is bad, click the link posted in the first post and let them know, they are asking for feed back, thats why i posted it here, if people think it's bad then they need to post in the feed back forum at Ebay I do not agree with an auction of animals of any kind, even with fundraisers with animal rescuers who are trying to adopt out animals or raise money for their cause , so if this is Ebays intentions then each and every person needs to let ebay know that they are nothing without their users and they are taking a stand agaisnt live animal auctions, but i didnt think that was how they were going to do it, either way, most people are not happy with the idea and i don't think they will do it. When i checked on the forum, there are about 20 pages and they were mostly agaisnt it, mabey 5 (posts not pages) were from people who were very mad at the idea. so i don't think you will find this is some thing that will happen, atleast not this time

Originally Posted by bengalbabe

I haven't read this whole thread but from what I know about ebay, once a person bids or does a 'buy it now" (yes you can sell things straight out instead of auctioning) you are in a legal, binding contract to sell to the person weather or not you like them or think they will provide a good home or not. In that case, no, no good breeder would get themselves into a contract to sell to someone that they have not interviewed.

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Ooooh thats a good point. Certainly don't want to be obligated to sell without background checks... Bad idea blossoming here.

Originally Posted by Lori Pretzer, Pet Supplies Category Manager

... We are hoping to launch a Live Pets Classified Format early next year. The listings would not be transactional and there would only be a listing fee. We are also looking into allowing non-profit animal shelters to list animals for adoption for free...

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At least please keep the argument to the facts, instead of debating the rumors. I don't see how this is any different than any other classifieds, cum large.

Originally Posted by celestialrags

I know the whole animals on Ebay is probley a bad idea, but it's not like they are going to hold auctions and the animal goes to the highest bidder, it's a classified ad, place your ad for a fee. Of course they are in it for the money, they aren't doing a service out of the good of their hearts so you can get want you want through them. Any one who sells a cat (savannah bengals, ect) are making money they may be breeding for the good of the breed, but they still want to make money, dont tell me that a litter of kittens sold for 900 and up for a pet or 2500 or even worse up to 3000 for a kitten and your not making money. Thats a good one. Arent savannas going with breeding rights from 3000 to 6000. ya but you dont make any money, right?

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Some of these people own Servals or Asian Leopard Cats, both of which need special care. You have to consider the special dietary requirements and many bengal and savannah breeders feed raw which commands a higher price. These costs are thus reflected in kitten selling prices. Also in these newer breeds many people are doing genetic profiling which in itself is expensive. Then to top this off with cats that are barely fertile, when you get litters of only 1-3 (averaging 2) cost comes out in other ways. I won't be selling my cats for that much yet it makes sense to me why some breeds are higher than others.

I agree with everyone. Ebays heart is in teh wrong place with this. They want to make money. If it were just an advertisement maybe it would be so bad. Besides paying breeder association fees and web site hosting fees, all of my advertising is for free and I am forseeing no problems with placing my cats as the inquiries have been very large. I don't think Ebay offers anything good especially if there is a binding contract.

Originally Posted by Catfur

At least please keep the argument to the facts, instead of debating the rumors. I don't see how this is any different than any other classifieds, cum large.

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I guess thats not so bad then. It would be like an all new petfinder, especially if it benefits shelters as a free listing.

Originally Posted by Catfur

At least please keep the argument to the facts, instead of debating the rumors. I don't see how this is any different than any other classifieds, cum large.

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Originally Posted by Catfur

At least please keep the argument to the facts, instead of debating the rumors. I don't see how this is any different than any other classifieds, cum large.

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I said in my post that I did not read the whole thread and I said "if" they are doing that way then I would be against it. Now that I see it's just classifieds I still think it's a mistake. There are way too many classifieds with puppy brokers selling already. It's very hard to find decent breeders on classifieds. The sheer number of classifieds that will be listed will make it hard to find the good ones among all of the trash. Even if they say that only rescue orgs. can list in the classifieds, I know they can't regulate it because there are other classifieds with the same policy and puppy mills get sneaky. Like say they are giving away a dog and then when you contact them they say they changed thier mind and send you to a link where they are selling the dog. Or they say "adoption fee" but the "adoption fee" is the price of the dog.

Ebay has people selling frogs,fish,mice,birds,lizards, and illegal snails, all were alive. Is this what you meant?

Originally Posted by keith p

Ebay has people selling frogs,fish,mice,birds,lizards, and illegal snails, all were alive. Is this what you meant?

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No they want to have classifieds with people selling dags and cats which is much differnet then fish, snails and corals (which is the only live auctions i've seen)

Ebay pulls idea:

http://www.adelphia.net/news/read.ph...tion=1&lang=en

Well thank goodness they came to their senses. I could just see so much wrong with it and the potential for misuse ... I am just so glad it won't happen.

I don't use ebay but I do use a NZ based auction site (Trademe) and we sell live animals on there. Nobody bids on them, it's just an ad that you can have pictures, information about your babies. Just like a newspaper ad. If anyone wants any additional information or wants to purchase a kitten, they can click the "email" button - if a kitten is sold this way then it doesn't get added to your ratings or whatever and you are able to screen every potential buyer. I don't see anything wrong with it and we have a lot of happy customers.

I just posted this out on e-bay. Yes, animals will die if they chose to auction them:

I am absolutely against the idea of auctioning live animals on e-bay. There are hundreds of thousands of homeless animals euthanized each year by shelters across the country. If a person chose to buy from e-bay over adopting one of these animals, e-bay has blood on their hands. For every animal sold on e-bay, a shelter animal will die. Is a dollar worth a life? I suspect that you would deal with a nationally supported boycott if you chose to do this. I for one would strongly support that movement.

I really dislike that argument of somebody buying a cat off someone else causes a cat to die. What if it was a shelter cat on Ebay that somebody bought?

I would have been for this, but it's not my auction site so not my decision

Originally Posted by Momofmany

I just posted this out on e-bay. Yes, animals will die if they chose to auction them:

I am absolutely against the idea of auctioning live animals on e-bay. There are hundreds of thousands of homeless animals euthanized each year by shelters across the country. If a person chose to buy from e-bay over adopting one of these animals, e-bay has blood on their hands. For every animal sold on e-bay, a shelter animal will die. Is a dollar worth a life? I suspect that you would deal with a nationally supported boycott if you chose to do this. I for one would strongly support that movement.

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I don't think this is a fair statement. It's not ebays fault that some irresponsible person let thier pets breed or that some irresponsinble person dumped their pet off at a shelter. Those animals will not die because of ebay. They will die because of the irresponsible pet owner. It's the same when people blame responsible breeders for shelter animals dying, it just dosen't correspond at all. One thing has nothing to do with the other.

Originally Posted by Momofmany

I just posted this out on e-bay. Yes, animals will die if they chose to auction them:

I am absolutely against the idea of auctioning live animals on e-bay. There are hundreds of thousands of homeless animals euthanized each year by shelters across the country. If a person chose to buy from e-bay over adopting one of these animals, e-bay has blood on their hands. For every animal sold on e-bay, a shelter animal will die. Is a dollar worth a life? I suspect that you would deal with a nationally supported boycott if you chose to do this. I for one would strongly support that movement.

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Not that I'm completely for it but I'm not sure I agree with your statement. I'm guessing you must be anti-breeder as well which is fine. But they would allow free postings for shelters so its really not taking away from shelter adoptions, maybe even help them in extra free advertising.

I'm glad they didn't go through with this stupid plan !

Here in the Netherlands there is this huge auction site almost everybody uses, Ebay isn't very big here. This site, Marktplaats.nl , does have a live animal section (Marktplaats has been bought by Ebay recently, but nothing has changed). Animals are also up for bid, although the seller is not obligated to accept a bid.

For the people who think there is no harm in dealing in live animals on this kind of site, you should know the Dutch situation, it would repel you ! The problems I'm going to mention always existed, but on a much smaller scale, since such a big site gave people a platform to sell ot get rid of their cat, these problems have multiplied, and dutch cat forums get inundated with stories about these problems lately.

There has been a steady increase of people who get rid of their cat, they wouldn't have put the cat in a shelter because they feel sorry for the cat, put they think it will find a reasonable home through Marktplaats, so they don't feel obligated to keep it apparently. Although there are already more cats than good homes, some people have developed and attitude of: "spay my cat ? if she gets a litter, I will easily get rid of it on Marktplaats! " Which is true a lot of times, because a lot of people would rather get a free kitten there, then pay for one from the shelter. So the amount of available kittens is on the rise, but not the amount of homes

There have been campaigns not to give kittens away for free, but now people have started breeding domestic shorthairs to sell them for 35-50 euros, and through the website they reach a much larger audience than through classifieds in the paper or an ad at the supermarket. There queens are forced to squeeze out litter after litter, the kittens are not wormed and vaccinated and are sold at six weeks or something.(under seven weeks is illegal here, BTW) Lots of them get sick. At the same time these people are breeding their cats for profit, there are thousands of cats (small country) still in shelters waiting for a new home.

Because breeders started advertising, the prices a pedigreed kitten fetches has given a lot of people the wrong idea. They want to make that kind of money too ! (but they don't realize good breeders pay for tests and vaccinations etc. too) There has been a dramatic increase in backyard breeding, the kittens are put up on marktplaats for a slightly lower price than a pedigreed kitten, they get bought by bargain hunters who apparantely don't care how many litters the mommy of their kitten has to have every year, or if their are genetic problems in a certain line, or if the cat has been vaccinated. often they want to breed themselves, too. And if such a breeder tires of a breeding animal for whatever reason, the cat is put on Marktplaats again, with mention of the fact the cat is not neutered/spayed ! Guess who often buys such an animal ? Another backyard breeder. Poor cats.

Ebay is probably the same kind of site with the same kind of big target audience, if Ebay were to sell live animals you should probably be prepared to see more of these problems.

Originally Posted by bengalbabe

I don't think this is a fair statement. It's not ebays fault that some irresponsible person let thier pets breed or that some irresponsinble person dumped their pet off at a shelter. Those animals will not die because of ebay. They will die because of the irresponsible pet owner. It's the same when people blame responsible breeders for shelter animals dying, it just dosen't correspond at all. One thing has nothing to do with the other.

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Please let me clarify. Most legitimate rescue organizations are not in it for the money, and most have a thorough screening process that they use for potential adopters. The goal is to place an animal in the right home so that they don't land back in the streets or back at a shelter. E-bay auctions would turn an animal into a commodity that is simply bought and sold. How can a rescue group screen everyone that bids? I don't see E-bay changing their rules that much to allow this - they have very strict rules for sellers to be legitimate about their offers. Rescue groups would require a lot of caveats about their auctions - you can bid, but you can't really win until we put you thru a screening process afterwards. Fundamentally opposed to what E-bay is all about.

I don't see very many rescue groups taking advantage of this. The regional rescue forum in my area is already talking about boycotts and I think their reaction is typical.

I also don't think that a reputable breeder would use this service for similar reasons to rescue groups. I suspect that every good breeder wants to see their animals placed in good homes. How do you screen those when the animal is up for public auction?

That leaves individuals that are simply looking for profit from the sale of animals. Thus the fear that this would bring out back yard breeders. Sales from those situations are the ones that take away legitimate adoptions from rescue groups. And those are the ones that force rescue groups to euthanize to obtain more space for the next homeless pet.

I totally understand that there would be some folks with good interests doing this, but I fundamentally see this causing far more harm than good.

You can't decide who you sell to on Ebay. It's against their rules. The person who wins the auction, no matter who they are or what their intentions are, gets the item (in this case a beautiful, living being). If you refuse to sell to the person who wins, they can take action against you.
So, as I know you all would never sell your animals to people who could just do whatever they felt like with them, I know none of you would sell your pets in the standard e-bay auction. Regardless of anything else involved. If e-bay decided to only do the buy-it-now or whatever, same problem, as whoever buys it first gets it. There is no screening process.

(I just realized someone else already said basically this. Sorry)

they decided against it which is good. But i guess i dont see the classifieds as any diffrent than,papers, or even petfinder. Now i know petfinder is for shelters...and rescue orgs..(funny my local shelters sure have never screened me or friends. have money will sign paper..have animal)

But they also do have a "classified section" which is always over run.