Online puppy ads: Don’t get ‘catfished’
Just like online dating, University of Adelaide researchers encourage people to be smart and ‘go with their gut’ when browsing and responding to online advertisements of dogs and puppies for sale.
School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences animal behaviour experts, studying the compliance of online pet ads, have calculated more than $4.5 million in dogs and puppies for sale in just two days’ worth of Gumtree listings. More than two thirds of the online ads were puppies.
Image by Martine Auvray from Pixabay
Lead author of the new research Ana Goncalves Costa, says while a majority of online ads were compliant with the respective Australian state or territory guidelines, many were not.
“Online markets are much bigger than a lot of people realise and there are a lot of concerns with online sales of dogs and puppies,” she says.
“It is incredibly difficult for buyers to notice the difference between a legitimate online seller and a scam or an unethical breeder.
“Our research found some breeder identifications that were false; and some ads where there was no way to confirm that the breeder ID actually belonged to the same person posting the ad.”
How can I check if a dog or puppy ad is legit?
- Cross-check the breeder’s ID number in the advert with the Dogs and Cats Online website. Make sure the contact details in the ad match those registered.
- Download the photo in the online advert and do a reverse-image Google search to see if the image has appeared elsewhere;
- Meet the puppy’s mum and dad in their own home, so you can see where the puppies were raised and so you can check Mum and Dad are friendly and healthy;
- Check the puppy is microchipped; and
- Just like anything online or offline, trust your instincts if something doesn’t feel right.
Shopping for a new best friend? Experts say 'be smart and go with your gut’ when browsing and responding to online advertisements of dogs and puppies for sale.
While it pays to be diligent when hunting for a new family pet, Ms Goncalves Costa’s research found that regulations “can be effective” in ensuring advertisement transparency and accuracy.
“Our research found that in the area of microchipping - Victoria, which was the only state requiring all dogs to be microchipped prior to sale and sellers to include their chip numbers in ads - had more than 90 per cent compliance and higher rates of microchipping than other states,” she says.
“So, what we're seeing is that which regulations we choose are important, because some are more effective than others.
“Chipping early - prior to sale - and increasing transparency of compliance by including the chip numbers required in ads, makes a big difference.”
Ms Goncalves Costa’s findings provide evidence that further research into regulatory compliance in online dog advertisements in Australia is required.
“It's still a bit of a wild west online and good, thoughtful regulations and research will help us make these platforms safer for both buyers and for the animals in the system.”
The research is published in the journal Animals and is co-authored by researchers Torben Nielsen, Eleonora Dal Grande, and Susan Hazel from the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, and Jonathan Tuke from the School of Mathematical Sciences.
Join in the research
Want to study with animal behaviour and welfare experts Dr Susan Hazel and Dr Torben Nielsen? One-year honours projects are available to analyse the numbers and types of online pet advertisements using data analysis and quantitative surveys.