Calls for Dubizzle to be stricter on sales of animals

To curb illegal offers of wild animals, the classified ads website must enforce stricter guidelines on what customers can advertise, activists say.

Exotic animals advertised on Dubizzle.

ABU DHABI // Animal welfare volunteers are calling on a classified advertising website to impose stricter guidelines to prevent the illegal sale of domestic and exotic animals.

Dubizzle states on its website that selling animals without a licence in the UAE is a criminal offence and it urges users to report advertisements of animals that do not pertain to free adoption, lost and found animals, or pet accessories.

But on September 21, an advertisement, posted in the category of pets for free adoption, promoted the sale of wild cats such as servals, F1 savannahs and cheetah cubs. It was withdrawn on Sunday after a complaint from an animal welfare worker.

Debbie Lawson, a volunteer with animal welfare groups across the UAE, says Dubizzle should enforce stricter rules to keep animals off the market.

She said that those selling animals use various websites and Dubizzle was the best at combating illegal activity.

“Dubizzle has done a great job in sponsoring and advertising animal welfare organisations and causes over the years and are very cooperative with users when they report advertisements of people selling animals,” she says. “However, it is not my job, or the job of others, to sift through hundreds of ads to report the offending ones.

“Once reported, they are taken down almost immediately, and the user blocked, which is good. But there is a problem, and I believe they should bring in more stringent guidelines without further delay.”

Evelyn Priess, of Middle East Animal Awareness, says one way to fight sales of wild animals is to demand that users provide identification documents.

“A solution can be to upload an Emirates ID or driver’s licence, an idea Dubizzle has turned down,” she says. “That way, people who are conducting illegal activities will be scared off.”

A spokeswoman for Dubizzle says the company received about 2,220 advertisements for the pets section last month.

“All ads we receive are filtered by an automated process and any suspicious content is then flagged to our customer support team dedicated to reviewing these, to ensure that the ads adhere to UAE law,” she says.

“In September, 122 ads were taken down because they pertained to the sale or the trade of animals without a licence. We work with the community to ensure any ads on the platform that do not adhere to our policies and UAE law are reported and taken down immediately.”