Pets Free To Good Home Warning

Introduction

People who advertise their pet as Free To Good Home, or ask for a small amount of money, do so with the faith that their pet will be well looked after.

Some of these pets will be lucky and go to genuinely caring people. However, there are too many people posing as good, caring people wanting to take the animal in, when what they are actually interested in is cruelly exploiting animals for their own ends.

Even if the person who initially takes your pet has good intentions, the simple fact is that, once a pet is no longer in your care, you have absolutely no control over who it gets passed on to, or what fate it may meet.

Below are just SOME of the fates commonly met by pets acquired through Free To Good Home adverts, or sold for a low price. These fates apply to many different species of pets, not just dogs and cats.

You will also find how to minimise the chances of these awful things happening to your pet and others’ pets here.

Image: Please do not offer your pet free to a good home, or for a low price. This page tells what can happen to them. Please spread the word. Source

Ad:

Pets End Up In Abusive Homes

Image: This is Sean Deakin – a poor excuse for a human being. Read his story below

Pets can often end up in an abusive home when advertised as Free To Good Home, or when checks are not thoroughly carried out on new homes.

The picture above shows Sean Deakin, an unemployed 19 year old (D.O.B 20.04.93), known at addresses Birchfield Avenue, Atherton, Wigan and Greenhill Road, Wakefield. He and his 19 year old girlfriend, Sarah Amanada Tame (D.O.B 06.07.92), known at the same addresses, responded to a free advert on the internet site Gumtree, offering a Staffordshire Bull Terrier called Tyson.

Just a couple of days after getting Tyson, Sean Deakin, for no apparent reason, viciously attacked him with a hammer at 3am in the morning, smashing down around 20 blows on his head, while girlfriend Sarah laughed. Three hours later Deakin woke to find that the frightened dog had urinated on the bed. Deakin chased the terrified Tyson, gripped him between his legs and stabbed him in the chest with a six inch knife. For the next 12 hours he allowed Tyson to die slowly, in agony, unable to move, fully conscious and vomiting.

Neither Deakin, nor his girlfriend Sarah Tame, who have a child who lives with his Grandmother, sought help for Tyson during his many hours of agony. His lifeless body was found in Deakin’s wheely bin four days later.

Sean Deakin was sentenced to just 20 weeks in prison, having to serve only 10 weeks. He is banned from keeping dogs for only 10 years. Sarah Tame was given a 12 month community order including 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay a £200 fine. She was banned from keeping any animals for 10 years. She was also deprived of another dog she owned, which has been in RSPCA care for over a year.

This is not a one off incident. Sadly, there are numerous cases this horrific happening all the time.

Abusive adopters can convincingly seem good homes when they respond to Free To Good Home ads, or any ads where checks are not made on them. Pets are also often passed on to abusive homes by the initial adopter of the pet (either not realising it is an abusive home, or not caring because they can make a profit out of it).

If there is no way you can continue to look after your pet, the responsible and safest option is to ask a reputable animal rescue to re-home it.

Image: A dog that was advertised “Free to good home” on Craigslist website, and has had terribly painful facial injuries inflicted upon it, including the loss of an eye. Sadly, this dog is just one of many that such things happen to after being advertised “free to good home” or for a low fee.

Return to Table of Contents

Used As Bait Animals In Dog Fighting

Bait animals, such as dogs, cats and rabbits are thrown in with dogs that have been trained to fight by their owners, for them to practice viciously ripping apart. The bait animals have their mouths tied shut and usually their legs bound, so they cannot defend themselves. If they do not die from the dogs attacking them, they are coldly and cruelly discarded to suffer and die from their wounds, alone.

Dog fighters acquire bait animals by stealing family pets of any breed, picking up strays and responding to free To Good Home adverts, or adverts where pets are offered for a low price. They also use animals that did not want to fight. Any way they can get the animals for free, or little cost is preferable.

A lady who gave her Golden retriever away to a home she thought was a good, loving one, got a call 2 weeks later from the RSPCA. They had found her dog dead in a dog fighting establishment, tied up with its muzzle duck taped so it could not defend itself. It had been mauled to death by other dogs. The RSPCA had been able to contact the dogs previous owners because the microchip still held their details. This is not a rare occurrence, it is happening all the time.

See the Dog Fighting page for more details of this cruel activity.

Image: This is what can often happen to “free to good home” pets. This young dog fell in to the hands of dog fighters who encouraged their dogs to practice what they’d been trained on it, inflicting these painful injuries and breaking it’s spirit. Dog fighters often dispose of bait dogs by letting them slowly die of their injuries, or by killing them in heartless ways.

Ripped Apart For Entertainment & Hunting Practice

Sadly, ‘free to good home’ kittens, cats, rabbits, puppies, small dogs and other animals are often sought out by sick people wishing to set their dogs on them. These people find it entertaining and amusing to watch a smaller animal being ripped apart by their dogs, who they have trained to do this. It is often done by people who take their dogs – often Lurchers – hunting for small animals. They take their dogs rabbiting and badger baiting and use these ‘free to good home’ pets as practice and training for their dogs.

Image: Lurchers make wonderful pets, as with the lovely lurcher in the image. Some people only own lurchers and other dogs for hunting, not as pets, and some sick individuals see encouraging their dogs to rip terrified “free to good home” pets apart, as entertainment. Image Source

Return to Table of Contents

Used As Live Food

Rodents advertised as free to good home, such as mice, hamsters, gerbils, rats, and other small animals commonly fall in to the hands of people who give them alive to their pet snakes to eat, or other pets that eat live food, as they get sick enjoyment out of watching it happen.

Image: Pet rodents “free to good home” can end up being used as live food for peoples pet snakes and other reptiles. 

Return to Table of Contents

Sold To Cruel Puppy Mills

If a dog in a Free To Good Home advert is a pure breed bitch, she can be sold to a puppy mill as a breeding dog. These are cruel places that are not concerned with the welfare of their animals, only their profits.

The life of a breeding dog in a puppy mill is a miserable, lonely life. Their health and insides are ruined by being bred far more than is healthy. Veterinary treatment to treat them for that, and other ailments, is withheld, as it would cut in to profits. They receive virtually no human attention and when they become of no use to make money, they are either abandoned or killed inhumanely.

Their living conditions are commonly disgusting, as they are kept in filthy small cages with others, among faeces, urine which burns their skin and even the dead bodies of other dogs who have not been treated for illnesses and just left to suffer to death.

Puppies born at puppy mills are sold by pet shops and other unscrupulous sellers, such as online sellers. They have many health and behavioural problems throughout their lives, costing their owners a fortune in veterinary bills and a lot of heart break. Many die young. Buying these puppies is not saving them, sadly it is funding this cruelty and ensuring it continues.

For more information, see the Puppy Farms page.

Image: Breeding dogs in puppy mills live lives of hell, kept prisoner and unloved and uncared for. Many suffer much more than the one shown, and many die a prolonged death in agony. Source

Ad:

Return To Table Of Contents

Sold On For A Profit - Even To Animal Testing Labs

Many people see a free pet simply as an opportunity to make money. It is often the case that a pet will be acquired for free from a Free To Good Home advert by someone convincingly playing the part of a good home for the pet. The pet is then sold on for a profit to anyone who is willing to pay, no matter how the pet will be treated.

Believe it or not, this includes animal experimentation / vivisection laboratories, where animals have a life of pain, suffering, loneliness. They either die a painful death because of experiments killing them, or they are killed when they are finished with. For details, see Animal Experimentation

There are actually dealers who acquire pets from various sources, including shelters and “free to good home” adverts, and adverts of low priced pets, to sell to animal research labs. See more here. These dealers pose as good homes for the pets.

Image: Both shelter pets, and pets advertised “free to a good home” are ending up in animal experimentation and vivisection laboratories, where they are subjected to horrific suffering. Source

Return to Table of Contents

Used Just To Breed From For Money

Some people will take on a pet with their only intention being to make money from breeding it selling it’s young. They have no interest in having it as a pet and are only interested in how it can make money for them. These dogs are often kept outside, starved of affection and only ‘bothered with’ when they are of use in making money. When they no longer make money for the person, the pet is often abandoned or killed.

If potential adopters ask if the pet is neutered and seem to lose interest if it is, it is likely they wanted it for this reason (if male, to “rent out” to make the puppies and if female, to bear the puppies).

The puppies are often sold indiscriminately, with no care put in to checking the homes or how the puppies will be treated. The only interest is in the money, which means the animals could easily end up in abusive and neglectful situations if these people offer the money asked for. As well as the pet being used to make money rather than being loved for itself, the breeding of it takes away homes from the millions of innocent, healthy, problem free pets of all ages that are abandoned every year, causing more of these loving animals to be put to death. The people who use them this way are nearly always disreputable breeders who cause both the animals and future owners heartbreak with their irresponsible methods. See the Bad Breeders page for details.

Already across the UK and US, around four million cats and dogs are put to death every year, simply because they are not adopted. These are dogs and cats that their owners bought as puppies and kittens, then later abandoned, or tried to pass them on to somebody else who subsequently abandoned them.

Image: Pets advertised as free to a good home that are not spayed or neutered can end up used as a breeding machine and then abandoned, like this elderly, blind boxer dog, who was trapped down a hole and left to starve to death once she was of no further use for making money. Source

Return to Table of Contents

Used In Animal Crush Videos

Animals advertised free to good home or for a low cost can fall in to the hands of people who produce animal crush videos. These videos generally feature, but do not limit themselves to, small live animals, such as kittens, puppies, mice and rabbits being slowly tortured in the most horrific and painful ways imaginable.
They are burned alive, cut with pruning sheers, nailed to the floor, skinned alive, beaten, stabbed and most often, they have their limbs crushed and broken – whatever will cause them to scream with agony the most for the longest time.

In the majority of these videos, the animals are crushed by scantily clad women in high heels. The sick and twisted individuals who purchase these videos, or pay to view them online, do so for sexual gratification, and the industry is growing in popularity throughout the world.

These people often do not stop at animals and can escalate to sexual violence towards children and other humans.

Image: “Free to a good home” pets can end up being tortured to death in Crush Videos. Source

Return to Table of Contents

How You Can Protect Your Pet And Other Pets From These Fates

To make sure your pet is much less likely to fall in to the wrong hands and suffer such abuse, there are measures you can take to try to make sure your pet goes to a genuinely good home:

• Make sure potential new owners are who they say they are: ask to see photographic ID and a utility bill with their name and address on during the home check.
• Do thorough home check of whole house and garden to check it’s safe, secure and suitable, and there are no signs of the owners being dodgy.
• Have female dogs neutered before selling, so they are not abused as breeding machines for money (people have been found to be running such operations from bedrooms, gardens, allotments, etc).
• Get vet references if they have or have had pets.
• Friend them on social media and scrutinise their pages.
• Google them, and look for past local newspaper/news reports on them.
• Don’t give your pet away for free or for a small amount of money (charge upwards of about £100).
• Consider re-homing through a reputable rescue, but make sure they do all these checks.
• Also get the new owner to sign a legally binding contract stating they cannot pass the pet on to anybody else, and must only return to you, or notify you and re-home through a rescue that you approve.

To save pets, please warn people of the dangers by directing them to this page. Please contact them with the above information if you see them advertising their pets for re-homing, either free or for a low price.

It is important that you are polite and courteous. If you are critical, confrontational, or insensitive, the owner will only think about how angry you have made them, rather than the importance of the message. Direct them to this page, but in case they do not click on the link, outline in your message to them horrifying examples of what could happen to their pet.

Join groups on social media sites where people sell pets to find these posts.

Image: Pets rely on us to protect them from harm. Source

Ad:

Return To Table Of Contents

How Can I Help?

There is a huge problem of animals being put to death because they are abandoned by owners who did not realise the work and sacrifices involved in owning a pet, and because too many people buy and breed new pets instead of adopting abandoned animals.

You can help by raising awareness of animal adoption, and of the issue of pet abandonment and bad breeders, by sharing the information from this site on social media. Making sure people become aware of these issues will be instrumental in helping to stop animal suffering.

Join groups on social media where people sell animals. Report posts that are selling pets, if it is against the policy of the social media site to do so.

Respectfully let people selling pets – especially for a low price or giving them away free – know about the dangers of doing so. Encourage them to find relationship retreat reviews, re-home their pet through a reputable rescue, as they do thorough checks and have legally binding contracts that the pet may not be passed on.

With people who post saying they are looking for a puppy or kitten, respectfully encourage them to adopt from a rescue. Let them know they can find rescues in their area on this page, and that there are general rescues, rescues for small breeds only, large breeds only, and rescues for specific breeds only. Many people do not realise that nearly every breed has rescues dedicated to only them.

Let them know that they will be saving a life, and that the rescue space they make available by adopting a pet will save the life of a pound pet who would otherwise be put to death when their short period of time is up at the local authority animal pound.

There are not enough life saving spaces for all the dogs and cats who need them, so every adoption means another pet has avoided being put to death feeling lonely, unwanted and unloved.

If you cannot help stop the deaths of innocent pets by adopting, fostering or sponsoring, you can help by cross-posting pets looking for rescue spaces (see the cross-posting page for details of what to do). Animal rescues are also usually in need of volunteers to help in a variety of roles.

Another way of helping save their lives, if you can afford to spare any money, is to donate at this website:
Pounds For Poundies

Even a small donation could mean the difference between an abandoned pet being saved or put to death. Even just the price of a cup of coffee at a cafe, or a bottle of fizzy pop. The animals on the site also need cross posted.

Image: Report Animal Cruelty to the Police! Source

Return To Table Of Contents

The Many Ways You Can Help Stop Animal Cruelty And Suffering

This website lets you know of many more ways to help stop animal cruelty, and there are ways  that will suit everyone, no matter what their personality. Share these ways with other people, on social media for example, to get more people helping.

Educating people about the cruelty that goes on is another way to help, so share the information on this website on social media. You can find this information in the Types Of Animal Cruelty section of this site. Viewing it will allow you to broaden your knowledge of many different types of animal abuse that happens in the world.

One way of raising awareness of animal cruelty issues is by educating people with what you wear.

Return To Table Of Contents