Pets and animals

Whether to allow pets and other animals to be offered or requested on Freegle can be controversial. It's a decision for each local community to make on its own message boards. ChitChat doesn't allow live creatures to be offered, requested or sold - a rule adopted in July 2022 (see ChitChat#Moderation).

('Other animals' includes live animal feed - e.g. mice or locusts fed to reptiles - and livestock, e.g. poultry.)

Some communities don't allow animal posts of any kind; some allow offers but not wanteds; some allow posts for animals that local rescue centres don't cater for, such as fish.

PETA wrote to the Board in 2022 asking for a national policy banning offers of live animals. The Board discussed this and decided it should remain a local decision (see the discussion).

Your community's policy

When deciding whether to allow pet and animal posts, the volunteer team might consider:

• What local facilities already exist for rehoming pets, such as rescue centres.
• Whether the community is urban or rural.
• Whether the volunteer team has the time and experience for this.
• Whether to run a poll of members - a poll can be useful evidence if you later get complaints. Be aware that news of a poll can reach organisations with strong views on the subject, who may encourage supporters to join your community purely to vote. You may want to suspend new applications for the duration of the poll.
• The Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG) offers good advice for people looking for a new pet, and is a useful resource for your community. The RSPCA, Blue Cross and other major charities are all PAAG members, and are concerned about inappropriate online advertising of animals.
• Lucy's Law covers the selling and adoption of puppies - worth bearing in mind if puppies are offered or requested on Freegle.
• This checklist for rehoming kittens is worth considering if you allow kittens to be offered or requested.

Advantages of allowing animal posts

• There may be no local facilities to rehome pets in your area, making this a genuinely useful service.
• Members may want contact with whoever takes on their pet.
• Allowing pets gives members more choice in how they use their community, making it less restrictive.

Disadvantages of allowing animal posts

• It can increase the moderating workload.
• It can increase complaints, both to the community and to Freegle nationally - some people boycott communities that allow animal posts.
• You may feel uneasy about animals being rehomed without the safety checks and vetting that rescue centres provide.

Tips

• Keep an up-to-date list of local and national animal rescue centres to send to people wanting to rehome a live creature - see Animal Rehoming Links.
• Build a good relationship with local rescue and rehoming centres. Your community can help them with things they need (bedding, carriers, baskets, cages, etc), and you'll be in a stronger position if challenged if you can point to a good working relationship and a well-informed policy.
• Appoint a Pet Mod, who takes sole charge of animal posts - see Pet Mods for guidance on the role.
• Messages about lost pets fit ChitChat better than the main Freegle boards.
• See an example local policy that disallows animals here, and one that allows pets here.
• See Frogspawn and tadpoles for specific advice on these seasonal messages.

Messages/replies to members

General reply used nationally

The central Freegle mailbox occasionally gets complaints about a local community allowing animal posts. Where possible these are forwarded to the community concerned, but members sometimes want Freegle to adopt a national policy. A typical mailbox reply:

"Thank you very much for your concern. We have guidelines for communities that offer pets which cover the points you've raised, but as we're a network of independent communities, each one sets its own policy on whether live creatures can be rehomed through it.

You've mentioned cats and dogs, but our communities are offered a much wider - and usually less emotive - range of live creatures. Hamsters, gerbils, rats, mice, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, fish, giant land snails, snakes, locusts and others have all been offered. When setting a local policy, the volunteer team takes the whole range of animals into account.

Some of our communities allow no live creatures at all; some allow small creatures; others allow all animals. Each community responds to local need, which charities aren't always able to meet. Local rehoming centres are always the first port of call, but people offering cats and dogs have often already tried that route unsuccessfully. There are very few, if any, national outlets for fish, rodents, reptiles, birds and the like. With record numbers of unwanted dogs and cats putting pressure on charities, other creatures can stand little chance of rehoming, because it's traditionally cat, dog and horse/donkey charities that attract most public support.

All our volunteers take their responsibilities seriously in running their communities. As a network of independent, locally-run communities, we're able to respond to local need. You haven't said which charity or group you represent, but if animal welfare charities offered their help and time to their local Freegle community, it could make a real difference to the many unwanted live creatures in the UK."

Rejection message for a post

A sample message for rejecting a post on your community: Animals (rejection message)

Links:

• Specific Items
• Animal Rehoming Links
• Tortoises
• Frogspawn