Site asking people to sell unwanted pets to labs rather than take to shelters.

[alphafemale]

ibuystrays.com :wtf:

I thought at first it was very dark satire. But I'm not sure.

http://ibuystrays.com/whysell.html

"You can enjoy their wonderful puppy / kitten stage and then reap a cash reward for having grown such a fine specimen. Start over with a new kitten every six months! Win,Win, and Win!

The sad truth is that once Fido or FiFi outgrow their cute age,
many pet owners simply no longer feel the love."

Edited to add quote. Again. :wtf:

[madinmaryland]

1. Does Bill Frist own that site?

:wtf:

[ThomCat]

2. Anyone who would sell an animal to a lab...

x(

I'd seriously want to kill anyone who tried to take one of my cats to a lab to be experimented upon.
university with both a veterinary college and a bio-medical research department and it was well known that any pet that got outside was likely to disappear. I spent weeks searching in vain for that cat. It's been almost 20 years and I'm still frequently hearbroken about it, imagining what happened, and how Copper may have been used/abused at the end of his life.
:cry:

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. That damn well better be a satire

I'm thinking it is. The lab-animal business doesn't work that way, I think. I hope so at any rate.

[flvegan]

4. Snopes seems to think so

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/ibuystrays.asp

[LeftyMom]

5. Class B dealers usually buy dogs from shelters at a discount (it's called "pound seizure")

Going out and paying individuals for the animal, plus gas and labor to go get it, wouldn't be a profitable business. So common sense would indicate that this is a hoax.

[flvegan]

7. Or from bunchers obtaining them from "Free Pet" ads and theft.

Always found it odd, miserable lot that they are, why they didn't just go to the puppymillers for dogs. Hunte only gives them $50 or so for each puppy to sell at Petland, et al. Seems the vivisection sect of research could just skip the middleman.

[LeftyMom]

8. They want healthy, docile, non-fucked up dogs.

And they get them from shelters for less (the last figure I saw was about $15,) so why would they pay millers more for their sick, neurotic, inbred dogs? As pound seizure gets outlawed more places that might happen, but I think a shift to buying more Class A (purpose-bred) dogs would be more likely, because millers can get more selling the dogs through third parties or direct to the public, and it's very easy to conceal that they run a mill if they sell online.

[LeftyMom]

6. The real story: Class B Dealers buy from pounds, steal dogs and get "free to a good home" animals

to sell in large lots to sell to schools and labs.

http://www.hsus.org/animals_in_research/animals_in_research_news/Class_B_Dealers.html

http://www.lcanimal.org/cmpgn/cmpgn_dog_theft.htm

http://www.banpoundseizure.org/adealers.shtml

http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/dealingdogs/index.html <- Documentary. Highly recommended.

[TZ]

9. I've worked in biotech and often around labs that do animal experimentation

And I don't know ANY that would obtain animals in such an unethical way. Plus most labs want rodents (rats, mice) and even if they don't they want certified pathogen free animals (I did time in a lab doing animal health testing)which you can't get this way.
I find it very hard to believe that there are many labs would accept animals whose origins and health can't be traced. Besides..most labs are moving away from cats and dogs and usuing primarily rodents and primates. In fact now some are going to zebra fish of all things. I expect less and less labs will use dogs and cats as subjects.