However, the schemes are a money-making alternative for unscrupulous businesspeople who supply “pet instalment” plans.
One such store in Guangzhou, within the southeastern province of Guangdong, that claims to supply “free adoptions”, has a tag connected to every animal exhibiting an quantity of money that have to be spent within the retailer as a situation of taking the pet.
Adopters should conform to spend a certain quantity of money every month on pet merchandise from the store’s on-line retailer earlier than taking the animal home.
For occasion, adopting a Blue Cat from the shop comes with a 500-yuan (US$70) month-to-month price ticket, unfold over two years, totalling 12,000 yuan (US$1,700) – rather more costly than merely shopping for a cat elsewhere.
“This is mainly to prevent people from mistreating or abandoning the cat after taking it home,” a member of workers on the pet retailer mentioned when requested to justify the two-year “instalment plan” to News Weekly.
In addition, many pet merchandise offered from its on-line store are priced above market charges.
A bag of particular 2kg imported cat meals prices about 60 yuan greater than from Taobao, the e-commerce platform operated by Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post.
Adopters are additionally made to signal agreements stipulating that they can not terminate the contract if the pet dies or is misplaced inside a two-year interval.
This means they may find yourself paying out for an animal they don’t have.
One buyer adopted a Maine Coon cat, and was locked into an automated month-to-month fee of 800 yuan for twenty-four months, regardless of the cat’s unintended demise only some months later, reported Guangdong Radio and Television station on January 31.
The well being of the cats can be a trigger for concern, with many shoppers reporting that the pets they took home had ailments.
“They’re using free adoption as a guise to trick people into paying for cat food and litter for two years, which ends up being more expensive. The cats and dogs are unhealthy. It’s all a scam,’ one customer said on Dianping, a prominent China platform for reviews.
The schemes have been widely criticised on mainland social media.
“Free? Would such a large operation really offer that for free? It’s just another sales tactic, not charity,” one person mentioned.
“It is not animal adoption at all. Real adoption would just require sending a video or photo to show the cats and dogs are doing well after the adoption,” mentioned one other.
