Community Standards

What these are

The Terms of Service are the contract between you and Pet Listings. These are something narrower and more practical: the rules for what people put on the site and how they treat each other. They cover listings, photos, messages and profiles, and every one of them applies to everybody, whether you have sold one animal or a hundred.

If you see something here being broken, report it. We would rather read a report that turns out to be nothing than miss the one that was not.

A listing has to be real

The animal exists, is yours to rehome, and is the one in the photos.
Your own photos of this animal, taken within the last month. Not the breeder's, not the internet's, not last year's litter.
No AI generated animals, and no editing that changes how the animal actually looks: its markings, its coat, its size, its condition. Your phone's ordinary enhancement is fine. A buyer is deciding from those pictures.
Breed, age, health and temperament described as they are, including what is wrong.
One listing per animal.
A business name cannot claim an accreditation we have not seen. Certified, verified, accredited, licensed, official, USDA, APHIS, AKC and UKC are refused in a business name for that reason.

What may not be listed

Any animal whose sale or ownership is against the law where you are. The law where you live decides this, not us, and not the buyer.
Animals too young to have left their mother. Eight weeks is the common floor for dogs and cats and the law in many states; check the rule for your species and your state, and never sell before it.
Stolen animals, and any animal you do not have the right to rehome.
Anything to do with animal fighting or baiting. Not the animals, not the equipment, not a listing that hints at it. This is a felony and we treat it as one.
Protected wildlife and endangered species, whatever your state allows. Federal and international law reaches further than a state licence does.
Photographs of an injured, sick or distressed animal used to sell it, and cropped ears or a docked tail advertised as a feature.
Anything that is not a live animal being rehomed. This is not a marketplace for equipment, services or anything else.

Messages

Most of the site is a conversation between two people. These rules are what keep it one worth having.

No harassment, no threats, no abuse.
No sexual content involving people, and anything sexual involving a child is never allowed here, in any framing, with no exception and no benefit of the doubt. Breeding terms about the animals are the ordinary language of this site and are fine.
No spam, and no messaging people in bulk about something they did not ask about.
No moving somebody off Pet Listings in order to get around these rules, or to take a payment somewhere nobody can trace it.

Treat people decently

Do not pretend to be somebody else, or a business you are not.
Do not publish somebody else's private information, or repost a private conversation in public. Sending either to us inside a report is not publishing it, and it is often the only evidence there is.
No slurs, and no abuse of somebody for who they are rather than what they did.
Disagreeing about a price, an animal or a decision is fine. Doing it as an insult is not.

Nobody has to talk to anybody

You can block a member at any time, for any reason or none, and you never owe anybody an explanation for it.

Blocking is never automatic. Reporting somebody does not block them, and we never block anybody on your behalf.
The conversation disappears for the person you blocked. It stays where it is for you, not for you to lose because they behaved badly.
A block can be undone from Settings, and nothing already sent is deleted either way.

Buyer and Seller Safety has the three places you can block somebody from, with the steps.

Reporting

Report from the listing, the message or the profile itself. That is what puts it in front of a moderator with the thing attached.
Tell us what happened rather than what you think should follow. The facts are the part only you have.
We never tell the reported member who reported them. Nothing they can see on the site names you.
Reporting the same thing repeatedly does not move it up a queue. One report is enough.
Do not retaliate against somebody for reporting you, or for the review they left. Threatening a member over either is treated as harassment and reaches the same outcomes above.

What happens when a rule is broken

Which of these follows depends on what was broken and whether it has happened before. Something dangerous does not work its way up the list first.

A moderator writes to you about it and asks you to put it right.
One listing comes off the market, and you are told why in the same words the moderator wrote. The rest of your listings stay up and your account stays open. Nothing is deleted, and a moderator can put it back. You cannot edit or delete it while it is down, so what gets reviewed is the listing as it was.
The account is suspended, which takes every live listing on it down at the same time. Listings already sold or expired stay as a record.
The account is closed for good.
The account and everything on it is deleted, which takes the listings, the messages and the reviews with it and cannot be undone.

We will not quietly edit a listing and leave it standing otherwise. If something has to come down, you are told which one and why, and it is the listing rather than the account wherever the listing is the problem. Where the law requires us to act at once, or an animal or a person is at risk, we act first and tell you after.

If a moderator has written to you, it arrives in your Messages and you can reply to it there. A reply is not a ticket and nothing chases it, so if the matter is urgent use the form below as well.

Think we got a decision wrong?

Tell us what happened and what you think we misread. We would rather correct a decision than defend it.