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Old 08-29-2012, 05:57 PM   #1
Moderator Team
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 149
Default Posting of external links, advertisements & welfare issues

There has been a rise in the number of threads concerning the welfare of hamsters and other pets featured in private adverts such as Gumtree and Preloved or videos on sites such as Youtube.

The moderator team acknowledge that sadly abuse, neglect and poor husbandry goes on but we feel our forum should not be a place to discuss such issues as it creates a sad and angry atmosphere on the forum which many members find upsetting and depressing.

In many cases, the animal will be kept in innapropriate conditions as a result of poor information given to the owner. Rather than insulting and bad mouthing these individuals, the aim of Hamster Central should be to re-educate these owners and help them improve the situation. Hamster Central is a public forum and it would be very easy for these owners to find their way here and then find threads about their ads perhaps when they are actually seeking help with their situation. This could lead to serious issues for the forum.

Every website has their own reporting system and we encourage our members to use these if they believe genuine abuse is happening. If abuse is witnessed first hand then the appropriate animal welfare service for your own country should be notified. This information should be easily found on the internet.

We would like to remind our members of our rules (which can be found here Forum Rules)

Our rules state:

"Posting External Links: You may post external website addresses and/or external links on the forum. They must however be helpful, appropriate and pertain to the subject matter of the thread. Information contained within the link must hold accurate information. Links or posts that are advertising products or animals that are for sale are not allowed and will be removed. Any links to stories, video clips, personal information regarding friends and relatives animals that are deemed by any moderator to be inappropriate will be removed from the forum without warning."

"Welfare: It should be noted that this is pet hamster forum and is primarily concerned with the care and welfare of the hamsters we share our homes with. If a member has concerns about the welfare of any animal they should report it to the appropriate authorities.

It is not appropriate to post about animal abuse or animal welfare in relation to pet shops or other situations on Hamster Central. All issues should be raised with the RSPCA, SSPCA or the appropriate organization for your own country. Concerns about animals in pet shops must be raised in the first instance with the store manager, then customer services and in the case of smaller shops the local authority which issues licenses to sell live animals. Any concerns relating to videos or articles that are found on the internet should be reported to the site owners where appropriate."

The forum cannot offer facilities for people to post links to sites (such as gumtree, preloved and craigslist) encouraging people to adopt animals in need. Each individual must do a private search and decide which animals they may be in a position to adopt and make their own arrangements. We do however have an adoption & rescue board on Hamster Central which is available for our members to rehome their hamsters if for any reason they find they are in such a position. Unfortunately in the interests of safety we also cannot allow people to make arrangements via the public boards regarding adoptions from such sites and we would be grateful if any such arrangements would be made strictly privately via PM or other media such as e-mail. It is a wonderful thing to adopt an animal though and we encourage anyone to do this should they be able by the correct routes.

This does not mean we do not wish for members to post about any hamsters they have welcomed into their home via a rescue or advertisement, we simply ask that no detailed information be given and that the thread be focused on the fun and happy adventures of the new ham, not how bad his past may have been.
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