PLEASE SHARE: If this saves one dog its worth writing. Just over 13 hours ago a staffie boy was rehomed via Gumtree. Today he has been found DEAD with "suspected" fighting injuries. PLEASE PEOPLE DONT USE THE FREE ADS! Rest easy Jenson x

Shared on my facebook page! How terribly sad :-(

Disgusting what people will do, poor poor boy :-(

Shocked, disgusted but not surprised :-(

i heard that gumtree were meant to be stopped selling pets over christmas.

I know that my freecycle group stop the 'advertising' of animals over Christmas.

Oh my goodness, that is just the end :(

Can anyone confirm this, has it been on the news? 

I'm sickened, but sadly no longer surprised :(

Can anyone confirm this, has it been on the news? 

Sadly it's not an uncommon occurrence, especially with bull breeds but really any thing will do. The creeps turn up at someones house looking very respectable, often with a child in tow to make then look like a nice family, they are very good at duping owners into thinking they've found a lovely home. 

I feel sick at the mere thought of this :-(

RIP to that dog, you were too good for this world xx

Hi Celli

I know, but I just wanted more confirmed information to alert fellow Stafford owners as to the area this occurred in and so on.  We're a pretty vigilant bunch and would like as much info about his as possible - to forewarn is to forearm and all that! :)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/178576365574054/

This is one group which has sprouted up since this has occurred.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Get-Gumtree-Animal-Free/216716345024783 - This appears to of been running for a while..

We have to start somewhere... Have a look and see what you think x

Thanks for those links, have joined both.

I got my pup off gumtree (and no loads others who have) and  i (or any of the others i no) would never do this :/  So i dont think it is fair to say that probs like that horrific insident is due to buying and selling dogs on gumtree. I think an owner like that would definatly have got a dog from other means if gumtree didnt sell animals and the same thing would have happened. It is irresponsible nasty people who get hold of dogs that cause horrific things like that to happen, not the website gumtree, in my opinion.

Surely just getting rid of sites like gumtree will not do much as these people will get dogs from other ways and do the same, why punish people who have had good experiences with dogs from gumtree andmaybe that dog or that person may not have found each other and been so happy together if i was not for gumtree or sites like this. Like i said it is the owners who cause the probs with dogs, not that site, and if they want a dog to fight or other reasons like this then thy WILL get one, no matter where from.

> Surely just getting rid of sites like gumtree will not do much as these people will get dogs from other ways and do the same

Actually I agree. It doesn't matter where a dog is advertised (or whether he is free or not) the onus is on the existing owner to thoroughly vet the new owner. Personally I don't see anything wrong at all with a 'free to a good home' older dog, I don't think many adult dogs have any financial value. The vast majority of these will go to good loving homes for life. I also don't think there is anything wrong with advertising these dogs in the free ads, decent loving pet owners read those ads too :-)

People that breed/train fighting dogs are unscrupulous, devious and (imo) downright evil. There are lots of ways they could get hold of whatever dogs they require, it's up to the public, police, rspca to keep an eye out and try to stop these people.

> People that breed/train fighting dogs are unscrupulous, devious and (imo) downright evil. There are lots of ways they could get hold of whatever dogs they require, it's up to the public, police, rspca to keep an eye out and try to stop these people.

Exactly. Stop the people doing this to animals, not the sites where people are trying there best to find a loving home for a dog, or people searching these sites to find a forever loving companion :)

What a good post, Chaumsong, I'd really like a like button on here!

I've advertised an older pup on one of these sites as I had exhausted a lot of my usual avenues and he was getting too used to living here and I found a lovely home.  OK, so he wasn't free or even cheap but still.  But I did more than my usual vetting.  I even called their vet that they used with their previous pet for a reference.  I think so long as you vet properly, these sites have their uses.

Another good one is googling the address and telephone numbers given.