While replying to Craigslist pet section ads Sunday, April 11, 2021, as I have since September of last year, I came across an orange cat photographed hiding in his litter box — on carpeting. The ad conjured questions: Who takes a picture of a cat they’re trying to sell while it’s in a litter box? Who keeps a litter box on carpeting let alone out in the open, next to what looks like a cable wire coming out of a wall? Worse, the ad said the cat needed a new home “ASAP,” and Craigslist’s map showed the cat lived near a woman who’s been collecting kittens for a dogfighter. I texted the person who’d posted the ad and said to charge a lot of money for the cat. Cleveland’s wannabe-animal-flipper Rachel Sanuk, aka Rachel Grace Barbera, replied that she was seeking $50 for him.
How I Discovered Rachel Sanuk Is a Wannabe Animal Flipper
After I replied to the ad for the orange cat, I returned to Cleveland’s Craigslist pet section to reply to more ads. Incredibly, I opened another ad Rachel Sanuk had posted with phone number 440-227-8818. This one sought free/cheap cats. No wonder the poor cat was hiding in his litter box, I thought. He didn’t belong to Sanuk. I wondered if she’d plucked a feral cat from someone’s yard, as many animal flippers — or pet flippers — do when they don’t outright steal them from people like Lady Gaga’s dog walker.
The next day, Sanuk posted a Craigslist ad selling a black cat that, like the orange cat, wanted nothing to do with her.
Other Craigslist Ads Rachel Sanuk, aka Rachel Grace Barbera, Has Posted
Tuesday, April 13, Sanuk began posting ads seeking a little dog. I can only assume she noticed all the Craigslist ads selling yorkies, shih-tzus, and cavapoos for hundreds of dollars and thought that would be a more profitable venture. She isn’t wrong about it being potentially profitable. This Akron-Canton animal flipper posted ads seeking a shih-tzu for weeks. Like Sanuk, who’s lying, saying she’s “looking for a lovable companion” (much like her ex-husband, I’m sure), the Akron-Canton animal flipper said she was looking to give a shih-tzu a good home and looking for a friend for her other dog. After the Akron-Canton animal flipper advertised a shih-tzu for $500, I called her out on it via email, and she lied again, saying the dog she’d posted was her aunt’s dog and they’d “decided to keep him anyway. So it’s all good.”
Why Rachel Sanuk Is Trying to Sell Animals on Craigslist
When I first discovered Sanuk was selling cats she was obtaining for free, I assumed she had a drug habit. It’s always possible that she does, considering Ohio’s heroin and opioid epidemic. But after doing a little digging, I learned Sanuk, whose background check reveals 21 criminal and traffic records, has owed a lot of money to a lot of people in years past.
Ultimately, Sanuk is the only one who knows why she’s flipping animals on Craigslist instead of getting a(nother) job. I recommend replying to one of her many ads and asking her. I also recommend flagging her ads to get them removed. She clearly couldn’t care less who she sells these animals to. She’s only concerned about money. And animal flippers, like this guy in Texas, have a history of killing animals they can’t sell for the amount of money they’d hoped to gain from them.
THIS is advocacy. 