A Change.org petition is calling for the end of "free to a good home" ads for animals on Australian website Gumtree.
More than 80,000 people have signed the petition, which claims animals sold as "free to a good home" can be used in fighting rings.
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The petition's organiser, Casey Kemp, told Yahoo News Australia she became interested in the issue after her staffie Choppy went missing. Kemp believes he was stolen to be used in dogfighting.
"He has never got out before, our backyard has really high fences," she said.
Kemp believes "free to good home" ads are where most dogfighting trainers get dogs from. There have been public cases of animals making their way from loving homes to dogfighting rings via the ads.
Animal control staff found a rottweiler/staffie with grave injuries to her face, two weeks after she was advertised for free on social media in 2018.
"She came in with pretty much really, really severe facial lacerations. She'd been mauled multiple times on her facial region," Happy Tails Rescue President Mykeala Campanini said.
Kemp's hopeful her petition will make a dent in the number of animals being sold into a life of cruelty.
"It won't stamp it out completely but will ward off a percentage of people, who are trying to get these animals for free," she told Yahoo News.
A spokesperson for GumTree told Yahoo News animal welfare is a "huge priority" for the company and people with concerns can use the "report ad" function to flag anything suspicious.
Newshub.
