About Pets Please

Pets Please started as a noticeboard. Breeders listed litters. Rescue groups posted animals that needed a home. Everyday people hunted for a collar, a cage, a kitten, a kelpie. The classifieds desk sat in New South Wales and the listings reached Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and the towns in between.

That older site had a news-and-advice column too: how to clean a dog's teeth, how to make a house safe for a cat, what to do at the dog park, how Queensland's breeder register worked, and why the RSPCA's Million Paws Walk still mattered. The voice was practical, a bit breathless, and unapologetically Australian — “furry, purry, feathery or scaly” was not a slogan so much as a census of the household.

The marketplace era is over. Puppy-farming laws tightened. Rescue groups built their own sites. Families still needed somewhere that explained the slow jobs of keeping an animal well in this country: heat, ticks, council registration, indoor cats and wildlife, leases that allow pets, and the difference between a reputable breeder and a listing that should make you close the tab.

Pets Please is now a long-form editorial journal. We keep the old beat — dogs and puppies, cats and kittens, small pets, birds, fish, reptiles, rescue and responsible ownership — and we write it at a length that can actually help. We use Australian English, Australian law and Australian seasons. We tell you when to ring a vet instead of finishing a how-to.

Who this desk is for

First-time puppy people. Renters trying to keep a cat legally. Parents cleaning a stain before a landlord inspection. Someone in Brisbane wondering whether heartworm prevention is really year-round (it is). Rescue volunteers who want a public explainer they can send to an adopter. Guest contributors who know a niche well enough to teach it.

How we work

Guides are original, reported against public Australian sources — RSPCA knowledge, state agriculture departments, local council pet pages, and veterinary teaching hospitals. We do not sell animals. We do not rank breeders. We do accept carefully edited guest articles that meet the same standard; those pitches live on our write for us page.

Corrections and complaints go through contact. The full house style sits in editorial standards. Photograph licences are listed on image credits.