Just wanted to sound off on this issue. I would have reacted exactly the same way as TNT.
Anyone can play the game enough to earn, or lab, or somehow get their dream pet, so I don't agree that it's important to have the pound as a forum for people to skip the work.
If you want to lab a pet and put it in for other people to get and make them happy, great, I am not dissing that at all - but you're not going to guarantee that the person who gets it is going to even appreciate it. The person who gets it could already be a millionaire that just wants to get one the easy way - using the money YOU spent on a lab map. They could be a scammer who is trying to fill up their account with aged and painted pets in an attempt to gain credibility. Or, it could be just the right kind of person you were trying to reach and make happy. But the point is, just because your intentions are good, doesn't mean that it will work out all warm and fuzzy.
And I think the GUP is working on that assumption- that most of the time the painted pets are attracting malicious users or ones who are willing to let someone else do the work for them.
And to those who say real world rules don't apply, that morals shouldn't be applied to the online fake world... i'm sure you are the same people screaming foul when someone breaking the rules affects you negatively or allows them to get something you couldn't get.
Furthermore, to the argument that TNT is being ridiculous by saying it's not very nice to pound a pet in the first place... Look. Neopets is a online flash game site. Sometimes they also institute long-term puzzle games (aka plots). The pets, and everything that goes with them, is an excuse to get you to play the games. Painting pets, feeding them, playing with them, all of it is made up, and it exists only to give you some nominal motivation/justification for playing the games. It also provides easy ways to add content for the games (characters, backstories, visuals, etc).
If they didn't have the pets, it wouldn't be neopets, it would be neogames.com. Which I wouldn't have a problem with, by the way! But if the basis of your online world is having pets to feed/play with/take care of, then the rest of your online world has to be connected to that.
jon0513, congrats for proving
godwin's law, and for completely misunderstanding why the GUPers are morphing the pets. they aren't doing it because they want pets to be green unis, they are doing it because they don't want people to get painted pets for free off someone else's hard work.