In a delightful example of responsiveness, Walmart in the US bowed to community pressure to remove pet ads from their new online classifieds website;

Just days after the Wal-Mart Classifieds launched, people began contacting the corporate office with their concerns about the “pet for sale” ads. By last Friday, just days after the site launched, Wal-Mart had removed all the pet ads from their website.
bestfriends.com

The response from Wal-Mart reads, in part:

Given the current “beta” status of Walmart.com classifieds, we will continue to make changes to the service over the coming months. Based on the feedback you and others provided, we have removed the pets category while we evaluate how to improve pet listings in ways that serve our local communities along with the well being of animals.

In 2008 with consumerism rapidly being replaced by conservation and awareness, a humane company is a respected company. Walmart should be congratulated for putting their corporate foot down, recognising and changing outdated policies and making a positive contribution to animal welfare.