The photo that came along with that message (which I didn't post with it here because it is too revolting) looked real enough.

Aside from which, as chocolatepuppy said, "You give up an animal to a stranger, no matter how NICE they seem and your animal is at their mercy, period. "

There are too many wackos out there, "people" totally lacking in empathy and compassion. We hear about them all the time in the news. And it is too easy for them, for anyone to get living creatures capable of suffering from sources like Craigslist and "Free to good home" ads posted in public places.

Remember Senator Bill Frist.. Doctor Bill Frist? From wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Frist):

"Medical school experiments

While he was a medical school student in the 1970s, Frist performed fatal medical experiments and vivisection on shelter cats while researching the use of drugs on the mitral valve. By his own account, Frist improperly obtained these cats from Boston animal shelters, falsely telling shelter staff he was adopting the cats as pets.[49] In his book, Frist asserted that he succumbed to the pressure to succeed in a highly competitive medical school.

Frist's treatment of cats first became controversial in 1994, in his first Senate campaign, when the opposing camp in the Republican primary called him a cat-killer. The matter again created public controversy in 2002, after mention in a Boston Globe profile, published after his election as Senate majority leader.[50][51]"