I love being able to make tabouleh with cucumbers and tomatoes fresh from my garden! What's not to love? Its simple to make ... keeps very well in the fridge and like many of life's best bits is actually better the second time around!
Rather like pet adoption, eh? It is ever so much more than the most economical way to bring home a new best friend.
Pets who have travelled a rough road before being rescued really DO have more love than anyone can imagine for the kind heart who gives them a better life! Even better, adopting a pet is a great way to walk the walk when one is trying to teach children the core value of compassion!
Best of all, rescued pets do not come with the curbside guarantee that is offered in the free online ads!
Unaddressed behavior problems are not camouflaged with pat phrases about not having enough time. Reputable rescues never hide known health issues under a barrel. Dear little dogs who have lived a dreadful life in a puppy mill are never disguised as good family pets.
So why, in this day and age, do unsavory breeders still find a strong customer base in the free online ad sites? Is that that folks find the no questions asked just show me the money honey solutions so simple? Have they not been reading the news? Or is it that the issue simply passes under their radar if noone they know personally has been affected?
When I first started seeing rescues advertise on Kijiji, I really got my knickers in a twist about it! I simply couldn't see past the idea that in doing so they were providing cloak of respectability to the same venue that people like the Benoits' were using!
At the same time, I have been going on like a stuck record about the need for off site adoptions! Hmmm!
Wood stacking is almost like a moving meditation. It is quiet, repetitive work that almost begs a bit of wool gathering. The other day, I had a bit of an epiphany .... what if I was wrong?
Might it not be a good thing to offer adoptable pets as an alternate in what is really the most popular second hand shopping site? Hmmmm.
So I rummaged around a bit and noticed that in the dogs and cats for sale listings, there is a new tab "Rehoming and Adoption" with a link to a lovely page about Responsible Pet ownership ... and the new (to me) info that our very own SPCANS is a Kijiji Pet Welfare Partner.
Now unlike certain journalists in southwestern Nova Scotia, I actually like to be sure of my facts before I talk about things on this blog (the topic of what an inappropriate conflict of interest has come into play when media outlets owned by grandstanding ex directors are used to undermine fundraising is a separate subject worthy of its own post on another day)
So I emailed Kristen Williams, who is the ED for the society to get the real poop. Ms Williams likes the new partnership between Kjiji and Petfinder that I have been grumbling about. According to her, " In the Atlantic region in particular this is valuable as we have some of the highest user rates of Kijiji.". Hmmm.
I also asked if that relationship had been helpful, to which Kristin replied "most definitely" and that " I would hope that by making our pets more readily available in the same environments where competition is high that positive educational opportunities as well as enhanced adoption numbers will result"
Hmmm. Now before the keyboards catch on fire, yes I know that Kjjiji still has the 'free to a good home' bit that is the bane of so many rescuers. Nor do those ads have any cute little info tabs included.
To be perfectly honest, I am still mulling over what I think about that, but am going to wait to talk about that one until I have a chance to chat about future pet section plans with Kijiji.
The unscrupulous sorts who breed puppies for profit are after the 'easy money'. Perhaps the best way to change that is to undermine their market.
What time is it? Maybe it is time to think of this approach as an aggressive marketing tool for rescued pets ... one that may in time reduce the need for 'free to a good homes'.
If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it. Albert Einstein
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