I agree and disagree.
The first time I got the message I was a little stressed about it. It didnt help that I had just become a non-COPPA user and had years worth of those messages piled up in my inbox that I had oly been able to see then. I found it a little depressing, especially since over all my COPPA years I didn't know that trading pound pets was "frowned upon", or that I got that message.
In fact, I have collected very many pound pets over the years. I keep them with my normal pet groups, I don't separate them out into a specific group. They go with their species.
I don't have any way of keeping them separate unless I start a pound pets group now. But that still wouldn't work because I have been on CS for a while now, and I don't feel like sorting through all of my THOUSANDS of pets to find out if they are from the pound or not.
I would have maybe made a pound group when I first joined if I was we'll educated on the subject of pound pets, but as I said I was a COPPA. I didn't read messages on the forums and collected pets without really knowing much about them because nobody could tell me.
I feel very guilty when I don't realize a pet is from the pound when I get the message.
But I think the message still has a purpose too, and I don't feel like shooting it down completely.
My solution would be adding some kind of warning to your pound pets. Maybe have some little red label on them while they are in your groups. Or better yet, have a label on them in your trades. That way you know what pets are pound pets so you might not trade them unknowingly. Trade partners should also be able to see this warning so that they know the person might trade these pets harder.
On another note with pound pets and being traded away, I have noticed a lack in education on the pound and its pets. As many have noted, their used to be a small paragraph on the pound page that explained how pound pets usually come from banned members etc., but I cannot recall when it was removed. I think it should possibly be added back if the whole "trading pound pets is bad" thing is still true. And maybe you should advertise this whole thing more. I didn't know trading pound pets was considered "bad" until years after I had been trading them, when I dropped my COPPA.
Another thing that should be more spoken about pound pets is their rarities. I'm pretty sure a rare pound grab would be maybe even more rare than the first release of it. But alas, I have had people sending me trades for my rare 2010 pound grabs asking for low prices "since they were from the pound".
Hope my opinion helps!
~Meg