Thank you for a thoughtful post, theporkieyorkie.
The majority of points you are raising are valid, except one - we do care who advertises on our site. We are not interested in becoming yet another portal for puppy mills.
Banning an advertiser based on reviews is not a bad idea, but as you can imagine, it requires very careful planning and implementation on our part. First of all, we need to have a substantial number of reviews accumulated, and evaluate all types of information coming in. Obviously, we want to avoid a mechanized approach, where reputable breeders are punished as a result of a single defamatory review.
Vadzilla.com has only been online for three months and already, not only we are very aware of most negative issues associated with the industry, we are actually starting to implement solutions. Our site is evolving constantly, based on your suggestions.
We believe there is a value in Vadzilla.com for breeders, beyond just advertising. We would like our site to become THE primary destination for all serious, responsible breeders abiding by the ethical rules established by AKC, UKC, CFA and other governing agencies. We will continue to provide tools to educate and guide both pet lovers and breeders. For example, we have forum on our site as well, and we would love it to become a place where breeders can communicate between themselves, share ideas and guide their potential customers, IRRESPECTIVE OF THE BREED they are working with. There is no such place online yet - only separate club sites, with minimal, if any, communication.
We really appreciate help from both breeders and regular pet lovers suggesting additional features they would find useful. We will do our best to incorporate them into Vadzilla.com. In the end, we maybe delusional hoping to alter a typical lazy mentality of a person looking for a dog or cat, but will give it an honest try, by making the information user-friendly and easily available.
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Originally Posted by theporkieyorkie  Sad...but sooo true!! Most good breeders aren't producing/selling mass quantities of dogs to the point where they need to sell them like merchandise...and they definitely don't need to pay for advertisement. And while some people may write reviews and do research, there are lots more who won't...because they are too lazy...and because they want everything NOW.
Heck...look at how many people buy dogs at pet stores having no idea the deplorable conditions their puppy came from...and they have no idea the kind of evil they are supporting. It's going to be/already is the same way online!!
People will think that because their puppy came clean with a cute little bow in it's hair, it must have came from a good loving home.
As much as I think it would be great for the owners/admins of vadzilla to research the breeders before they let someone advertise, I am guessing it would take a lot of time and energy to do so and it would be virtually impossible to keep up with.
HOWEVER, I do think it would be nice if the admins would look into complaints written and consider banning those that are obviously bad breeders....BUT, I am guessing as long as someone is paying $$ to advertise, they probably aren't going to do squat because they want the money...and it doesn't really matter to them if it's dirty puppymill money or not 
On the other hand...if someone was banned for being a bad breeder, they'd probably just come back on under another name anyways. |