Another post on Facebook regarding a "free dog to good home" on Craigslist....

I came across this ad on Facebook for 2 free Miniature Dachshunds on craigslist. One looks to be a piebald smooth and the other a red haired smooth dachshund. Here is the link and the letter I sent to them. Please if you must rehome your dog or cat, please find a reputable shelter or rescue to take them.

Red Smooth Miniature Dachshund

http://mobile.craigslist.org/grd/3005770157.html

AKC Piebald Miniature Dachshund

Hi, 

I hope you don’t mind me contacting you but I’m worried about your dog being free to good home, a lot of free dogs end up in the wrong hands and become bait dogs for dog fighting trainers, even the little dogs and there have been incidents of dogs being found mauled to death that were rehomed to a “family home” 

A lady who gave her Golden retriever away to a supposedly loving home, got a call only 2 weeks later from the RSPCA that had found her dead dog in a dog fighting establishment, tied up and its muzzle duck taped after it had been mauled to death by other dogs. The microchip was still holding her previous owners address.

Sadly, small breeds of dogs and cats are also used in dog fighting as "bait" for the fighting dogs that are being trained. These are usually small breed dogs that cannot easily defend themselves.

The other risks of giving dogs away are huge - they can be used for breeding in puppy farms living a lightless life of nothingness, a lot of puppy farm dogs if lucky enough to survive and be rescued are terrified of human beings and physically ill or injured - they literally are money making breeding machines. If its possible to advertise your dog as sterilized- or even have the operation done- if not already please consider this, puppy farm dog abusers are delighted when they see not neutered on ads. They simply see money not your lovely dog.

Another recent risk of giving away small and pedigree dogs for free is that people will take them from you and sell them on again - sometimes for hundreds of dollars, there is nothing bad about asking for an adoption fee for your dog - even if you donate it to charity, it puts value on your dog. 

Not everyone with sinister motives looks obvious, people have been known to take children with them to look at dogs to appear genuine, fabricate wonderful lives and great history with dogs- please be suspicious and careful when you meet people, the genuine will not mind it at all. 

I hope you will consider asking a rescue for help when rehoming your dog, they are not simply dogs homes and a lot never use kennels but may have waiting lists for dogs such as yours and you could ask for rescue back up but still keep the dog with you until a home is found. That would ensure a home check at least. Otherwise there is dogpages.org – a rescue forum with a private rehoming section – it has a fantastic rehoming history (I got two of my dogs from there) there are a lot of fantastic rescues that use the site.

If you consider that you, now knowing the risks are still happy to rehome your dog yourself please consider meeting the entire family that want to take your dog, have a look at where they live, or at least see good identification, perhaps a reference from their vet and perhaps meet up a couple of times for your dog to get to know them to make the handover easier on your pet. Any responsible and genuine person wanting to take your dog will be more than happy to go through these things with you, this will also hopefully ensure that your dog will not be passed on again in the future.

once again I hope this has helped let you know that it’s not safe out there for free to good home dogs and not offended you, I expect you are finding it difficult enough to rehome your pet, please feel free to get in touch if I can help with anything

best wishes

Cora Shaw