Dog owner warns others about using pet's birthday on Instagram account | Daily Hive

Snowgie the seven-year-old Westie had 3,000 Instagram followers before the account got de-activated (Spencer Sin/Submitted)

Update May 26, 2022: Access to Sin’s account was restored after Daily Hive contacted Meta about the issue.

A Richmond, BC, dog owner is warning Instagram users not to use their pet’s birthday when setting up an account for their fluffy friend — or risk losing access to it.

Spencer Sin, dog dad to Snowgie the Westie, has been operating an Instagram account focused on his pup for the past six years. He and his partner used Snowgie’s birthday when setting up the account, but on May 13 the account got suspended — Instagram said they weren’t old enough to be using the platform.

Submitted

Even though Sin is 36, and he’s submitted multiple IDs to prove it, he still doesn’t have the account back.

Spencer Sin (right) with Snowgie. (Submitted)

“It’s so frustrating,” he told Daily Hive. “I can only wait because I don’t know what they’re doing.”

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Sin uses Snowgie’s account for Westie meetups and after losing it, he has no way of getting in touch with other owners.

Submitted

He’s filed multiple appeals with Instagram to get the account back and submitted his driver’s licence, passport, and PR card — but so far Instagram has said the IDs don’t match the account.

The experience has been especially vexing because there’s no way to talk to someone at the social media platform. After Googling for solutions, Sin tried setting up a Facebook account for Snowgie and purchased advertisements to access Facebook’s live chat function.

So far he’s spent $100 but still hasn’t got a solution.

Submitted

“They can’t even help,” Sin said. “They just said they just they’ll help me to contact the internal team. I don’t know what he means.”

In the meantime, Snowgie’s account has been deactivated and Sin is still hoping for a solution so he can share photos of his active and playful dog once again.

A spokesperson for Meta who got back to Daily Hive after this story was published said it may take up to 30 days for an appeal to be reviewed. Users must be at least 13 years old to use Instagram.