How illegal puppy traders and sellers use Facebook

For the investigation conducted by the global animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS, undercover investigators met illegal traders in Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The sellers revealed their tricks for effortlessly circumventing Meta's policies. FOUR PAWS is calling on Meta to close the loopholes that make it possible to advertise dogs on their social media platforms. Theanimal welfare problemis also evident in the illegal puppy trade.

During the FOUR PAWS investigation, which was carried out in the summer of 2024 with 14 in-person meetings as well as online, illegal traders offered sick puppies without breeding licences and with dubious vaccination records, ignored rabies regulations for exports and handed over dogs in public places, in violation of national and EU regulations.

"Thousands of dogs are traded illegally across Europe every year and bred under appalling conditions, leading to long-lasting health and behavioural problems and sometimes even death. Unfortunately, this cruel trade is widespread on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Despite rules existing and laws being broken, Meta does very little to stop the terrible puppy trade on their platforms," says Nick Weston, Head of International Companion Animal Campaigns at FOUR PAWS.

This merciless practice exposes both animals and humans to considerable health risks. What often remains are high veterinary bills, grief and pain for the owners. The investigation revealed that many of the puppies on offer were sick or had been raised in unhygienic, chaotic conditions. Dogs were kept in large numbers in living rooms and bedrooms, the floors were covered in dog feces and reeked of ammonia. Some of the puppies visited suffered from kennel cough, watery eyes, hernias or other health problems. More on Crime and animal trafficking.

This is the system behind puppy trading on Facebook

Although Meta partially removes puppy listings that mention prices and other obvious sales terms, illegal traders manage to remain undetected. To do so, they disclose little to no descriptive information about the dogs in their posts, using emojis and hashtags instead. For example, a heart next to a photo indicated that the puppy was still available, while the color of the heart (blue or pink) indicated its sex. Information about the legitimacy of the sellers was either unclear or entirely absent from the posts. Through this covert approach, the trade goes undetected by Meta's controls.

«Many of the cruel puppy traders told our investigators how they circumvent Facebook's rules. There was an established code for advertising puppies without getting banned. Use emojis, avoid certain words, conduct sales negotiations in private messages. Everyone knew the code,» says Weston. In this way, private sales are conducted every day across Europe — with apparently minimal action on Meta's part. «Meta needs to better enforce its own rules and policies, otherwise the cruel puppy trade on Facebook and Instagram will continue to grow, making victims of both people and animals,» Weston warns.

Sellers reveal their methods

During the FOUR PAWS investigation, it became clear that Facebook is an attractive medium for private sellers who offer their dogs illegally. Group administrators explained to their members how to communicate in order to avoid being detected by the platforms. The offers discovered even included the delivery of dogs from abroad. In general, dogs were offered at high prices in all three countries: 400 to 2’000 EUR in the Netherlands and Belgium, and 1’000 to 10’000 pounds in the United Kingdom.

A Belgian seller with 14 adult dogs on her property even admitted to no longer having a Belgian registration number, which is required for commercial breeders, because there are “too many inspections, far too much trouble with taxes and everything.” Another seller from Belgium, who was also an administrator of several Facebook groups, admitted that her network disabled comments to avoid being detected: “When puppies are posted, we remove the comment. Why? Because a friend then asks about the price, which Facebook does not allow, as it implies the sale of the puppy. So all of that has to happen privately.”

Background on the FOUR PAWS Investigation

In the summer of 2024, FOUR PAWS investigated cases of puppy trade on Facebook in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium. This involved online research and 14 meetings with sellers. It is part of the FOUR PAWS campaign “Stop Irresponsible Puppy Trade on Social Media,” which calls on Meta via petition to close the loopholes that allow illegal, cruel traders to offer dogs for sale on the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. More onAnimal Rights.