Puppy sellers advertising online in Northern Ireland are facing new standards to abide by from today or face being banned from sites.
They include Gumtree and Pets4Homes whose online ads for pets were amongst almost 1 million placed across the UK last year.
Now a set of new advertising rules is expected to reduce the number of poorly bred, mutilated and illegally treated animals flooding the UK market.
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And the Pet Advertising Advisory Group - or PAAG - hopes the move will also end the horrors experienced by unsuspecting buyers from low-quality online pet adverts.
The new standards have been welcomed by vets saying websites will now include:
- block sellers from advertising dogs and pups with illegal mutilations like docked tails and cropped ears,
- block ads for banned breeds and underage puppies
- crack down on sellers advertising animals frequently without a local authority licence.
But animal welfare campaigners who have been pushing for a complete ban on pet sales online, are more cautious, describing the new standards as ‘advisory’ and ‘without teeth’, and they say the results will be closely monitored.
Paula Boyden, Chair of PAAG and Veterinary Director for Dogs Trust, said: “PAAG is not a regulatory body, so we are hugely grateful to our engaged websites for their hard work and commitment in this area, and we are delighted that they have all agreed to making an annual declaration committing to the Advertising Standards.”
Here are the Top 12 new standards advertisers must abide by:
- Ads offering pregnant animals for sale - BANNED
- Ads for dogs that have had their ears cropped - BANNED
- Pets are advertised for swapping with other pets, services or goods - BANNED
- Ads where there is a reasonable concern for the health and welfare of the animal involved - BLOCKED
- State whether the dog is or will be, microchipped and registered by breeder with a compliant database operator - MANDATORY
New owners must transfer the microchip record to their details - MANDATORY
- Ads offering stud dogs, dogs in season or animals ‘for rent’ or ‘loan’ within the pet section - BANNED
- Ads specifying that the dog is to be used for working, hunting or guarding from the pet section - REMOVED
- All vendors must include a recent photograph of the dog they are advertising - MANDATORY
- All vendors must display the age of the dog for sale - MANDATORY
- Pups should be advertised for transfer to a new owner before they are weaned and no longer dependent on parents - MANDATORY
- All vendors must state the country of origin, as well as the country of residence from which the dog is being sold, and ideally the country and/or region if in the UK - MANDATORY
- All sites will monitor for suspicious usage of images - MANDATORY
The new standards were launched on Friday, June 30 by the PAAG, which includes groups of animal welfare organisations, trade associations and veterinary bodies.
Justine Shotton, Senior Vice President of the British Veterinary Association, said: “Online marketplaces are extremely popular and so the commitment of these websites to the new advertising standards is hugely positive, and we hope other websites follow suit.
“Together, we can continue our work to rein in the wild west nature of buying and selling pets online and make sure that animal welfare and buyer safety are front and centre.
“Anyone thinking of buying a pet should always take the extra time to consider if they will be able to look after the animal’s health and welfare requirements.
"If an ad does not share basic information such as a photo, age, country of origin and relevant health tests, you should flag it to the website and be prepared to walk away to avoid dodgy sellers and animals that might have a poor quality of life because of how they have been bred.”
The websites currently engaging with PAAG include a number that are regularly used in Northern Ireland including Gumtree and Pets4Homes. They have committed to meet the Advertising Standards alongside:
- Freeads
- Friday Media Group
- Forever Puppy
- Preloved
- Puppy Choices
- Wightbay
The 2023 PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report revealed 65% of pet owners found their pet online, equating to 15 million pets, a significantly higher proportion than 2022’s figure of 53%.
The PAAG new voluntary advertising standards are an updated version of the minimum standards launched in 2012. The group has been working for more than 20 years to try to standardise pet sales and have seen six standards adopted into law in England, Scotland and Wales, but none in Northern Ireland.
PAAG Chair, Paula Boyden, said: “This is an encouraging step however we know that there is still more to be done to ensure best practice in the sale of pets online.
“Our new PAAG Advertising Standards clearly set out the legal requirements for pets advertised online, the minimum standards we would expect a classified website to adhere to in its pet advert section.
The 16 further standards advertisers must abide by:
- Provide further steps that websites can take to keep buyers safe and appropriately informed, and ensure pet adverts are of the highest quality.
- Label each advert as to whether the advert is for a private sale, ie, someone who does not require a licence; by a licensed seller; or from a rescue/rehoming centre
- Run automated checks for ‘blacklisted’ words/terms, including for banned breeds and prohibited species. These include dogs prohibited under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and animals prohibited under the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019.
- Filter for other misleading, inappropriate and illegal adverts and take any adverts found or notified down within 12 working hours
- Monitor for multiple mobile/telephone numbers and email addresses in private sales and investigate and potentially ban frequent/repeat vendors if they are unable to provide evidence of a Local Authority licence. ‘Frequent’ is defined as the same vendor offering a third different animal for sale in a 12-month period.
- Ban adverts of live vertebrate animals as food
- Cross reference adverts for dogs that have been tail docked with those breeds exempted in England, Scotland and Wales. Remove any adverts for breeds that are advertised as docked but are not an exempted breed, and those exempted breeds that have not been legally docked by a vet.
- Ensure that every view item page includes prominent links to PAAG advice on buying and selling an animal
- Ensure that every view item page includes prominent links to PAAG approved care information on feeding, housing, handling, husbandry, life expectancy, provision of suitable accessories and veterinary care for the animal being advertised
- Provide a clearly visible function for purchasers to report illegal, misleading or inappropriate adverts
- Require all vendors to include information relating to the species name (and breed as relevant) and, except for fish, the sex of the animal
- Provide advice and support that encourages responsible rehoming to any sellers offering an animal as ‘free to a good home’
- Require all breeders to include a recognisable photo of young animals with their mother - this applies to dogs, cats, rabbit, ferrets and chinchillas
- Non-human primates and all other species scheduled by the Dangerous Wild Animals Act should not be offered for sale on general classified advertising websites. It should be made clear to vendors that it is an offence to offer a species covered by GB Wildlife Trade Regulations Annex A without a valid Article 10 Certificate. There are further species which are not suitable for sale on general classified websites and should not be offered for sale on these platforms. These are raptors (including ow
- Ensure that no live vertebrates are advertised for sale as deliverable through the postal system (national or international) or deliverable by the seller in-person (unless it is an equine).
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