Many of us in rescue and those followers of this section will long be aware of the issues surrounding the 'tree' site and the suffering directly caused because of it. Recently several rescue groups and individuals have joined forces on Facebook with the aim of gathering evidence to present to the people that run ***tree as well as the RSPCA whose involvement with the site is viewed by many as an endorsement of it existence.
Yesterday group organisers, along with representatives of rescues met with the RSPCA representatives and ***tree senior directors. I won't reproduce the report of the meeting but I can tell you it was learned that NO human monitoring of ***tree takes place before an ad goes live and it's all done by software tasked with flagging up certain buzz words. When presented with evidence as well as statements of high profile supporters of the campaign to remove the animals section, ***tree directors appeared shocked at times. They also confessed to having no idea about animal welfare issues and also admitted no one on staff has researched them and when an advert which raises concerns on individual cases is removed, no further action is taken and no one at the RSPCA is alerted.
People... it is important, when you see an advert which is clearly illegal or raises concerns about the welfare of the animals concerned, do NOT simply report is via the ***tree site itself. The ad will be deleted but no further action will be taken and no record kept about who placed the advert. You MUST alert the ad to the RSPCA yourselves or else the animal can never be saved!
Further discussions have not been ruled out and I'm happy to report that the campaign representatives invited ***tree staff to shadow a dog rescue who deals with ***tree originated cases and to visit a dog pound and the ***tree staff have agreed to do this.
If anyone wants further info please PM me. But this is a MAJOR step forward in getting ***tree to remove their animals section.
