Uncle Fester
04-24-2006, 09:53 PM
A recent story in Roadstar magazine set me off-
It was about how a husband/wife team bred these exotic, " pedigreed Cheetoh cats" and sold them-for $1000.00 a piece.
What really blew my top was this quote:
The breeders' goal is to have a large, sweet-natured lap cat that looks like a true jungle cat but has a completely dependable nature that can be trusted around anyone.
Well, isn't that special?
A little insight here, this particular breed is a this feline is a fairly new hybrid, blending wild and domestic bloodlines of the Ocicat and Bengal cats as well as the Asian leopard.
According to some, an animal taken from the wild and bred for domesticaton will have to go through about 20 generations before it could be considered "domesticated".
It should also be pointed out that these animals will range in size from 15 to 20 pounds.
That's a mighty big cat.
My question here is, since the "goal" here is "to have a large, sweet-natured lap cat that looks like a true jungle cat but has a completely dependable nature that can be trusted around anyone.", what will become of the animals that don't fit that criteria?
Do these breeders mean to suggest that they will provide lifetime care for the animals that are not " completely dependable", or will these animals be sold to people who may or may not know what they are getting?
If these animals prove to be more than the new owner can manage, what then will become of these animals?
There are several distinct possibilities:
1)The owner could return the cat to the breeder, who may in turn just use the animal as "breeding stock"
2)The owner will abandon the cat which poses it's own set of problems since, according to wildlife experts that a cat is one of the very few animals that can, after being domesticated revert to a wild animal.
3)The animal could deliver a vicious attack on someone's kid who just wanted to play with the kitty, having no idea that it was potentially dangerous.
This animal would probably be euthanized.
4)The owner decides to surrender the animal to an animal shelter and "lets them deal with it".
They might even give a false statement regarding the animals behavior (I work in an animal shelter, people lie to us all the time about their animals), hoping that the animal isn't "put down" and finds a home that is suitable.
Pretty twisted loyalty if you ask me-you're dumping your animal because you don't want the responsibility anymore, but you don't want me to have to put it to sleep if it proves to be a dangerous animal.
For a cat with behavior problems, we can pretty much tell by dealing with these animals each and every day which ones can make the cut and which may have to "meet the needle".
In the meantime, my staff has to feed, water and clean up after this animal which could pose a risk to them.
I'd rather deal with an aggressive 100 pound Rotty than try to wrangle a ticked off six-pound kitty-now you're telling me that you're breeding a cat that isn't too far removed from the wild and weighs in at 15-20 pounds?
Thanks a lot. You bred an animal that could cost my poor shelter an expensive workmans compensation claim and you made $1000.00 times however many animals you sold out of that litter. And you probably didn't claim it on your taxes.
Now can anyone understand why I support an expensive licensing fee for animal breeders?
There are very few "responsible animal breeders" in my opinion, especially those who claim to have such altruistic motivations such as a "love for the breed" or "improving the bloodline" usually have such a high price for the animals they are selling.
Looking over the classified section of the Virginian Pilot for Sunday, April 23rd, I decided to perform an informal, unscientific study.
I added up all of the prices for all of the animals that were for sale, the low side was $20.00, the extream was around $1500.00.
I averaged the costs and came up with the figure of $545.00 per animal.
Contrast that with the Beagle we took in from an older gent today who surrendered the animal because it was a puppy and he couldn't keep up with it.
This animal is neutered, up to date on all it's shots and even has a microchip for identification.
Available TODAY from the Portsmouth Humane Society for the princely sum of $60.00
We had a Golden LAb named Roscoe at our shelter, great dog, LIVED fetch a ball, rode well in the car and followed simple voice commands.
Thank GOD we got him into an animal rescue and it saved his life, but $60.00 would have gotten you one great dog and you'd have had a LOT of money left over for supplies, Vet care and food as opposed to the $700.00 that the purebreds golden labe in the paper were being sold for.
As a society, we need to stop and ask ourselves some serious questions about why we want a pet.
Do we want a pet as a status symbol to impress others, or are we seeking to fill a void in our life that a pet would fill with their non-judgemental and unconditional love for us nomatter who we are?
Are we promoting misery and needless death of companion animals by robbing an animal in a shelter of a potential home by supporting animal breeders ever-increasing prices?
As far as love and affection goes, I have cats on the adoption floor right now that I will match up against any cat at any price-mine will loove you just as much, and you will quite literally be saving their life.
That is reward enough on it's own.
If you are a breeder, then I would invite you to our shelter and ask you to watch as we euthanize a number of animals equal to the number of animals you have bred for sale-you might as well be there becasue your actions were in part responsible for their deaths. I am getting a little tired of hearing people say to us, "Oh, but you kill animals".
Yes, we do kill, put to sleep, euthanize, check them out, stamp their ticket as well as "send them to the other side" and any other euphimisim that happens to be popular-and it breaks my heart each and every time I see an empty cage that was once occupied by a wonderful cat and I don't have any corrosponding adoption paperwork. I have NIGHTMARES about it.
But I know that at some point, we have to decide at what point are we keeping an animal in a cage day after day while it grows depressed or "cage aggressive" knowing full well that we can't build floor after floor onto our shelter, we don't have the staff to care for them all forever and we know that as soon as one get's adopted, one or two more are on the way-it is kitten and puppy season.
If we don't take them, what will the person who just wants to "get rid of them" do if there is noplace that will care for, protect and try to find them a new home? The person turning the animal in has had enough, so unless we're there to take the animal, can we count on them doing the right thing?
We aren't taking that chance.
I've just given you a little insight into my world-every day we go to work in the hopes that when we're finished our cages will be empty and our adoptions will equal the number of animals that were in our shelter. It rarely happens that way, but we can't stop trying.
Back to our breeder friends, sure they think it's cool breeding an exotic cat and spending the extra money they are making-but they are simply responding to a demand by a very self-absorbed society who doesn't stop to think about what their actions are causing.
I think about it every time I hear the lock on the pharmacy closet open and the clock starts ticking down it's last few moments for some unlucky animals we just couldn't save.
It was about how a husband/wife team bred these exotic, " pedigreed Cheetoh cats" and sold them-for $1000.00 a piece.
What really blew my top was this quote:
The breeders' goal is to have a large, sweet-natured lap cat that looks like a true jungle cat but has a completely dependable nature that can be trusted around anyone.
Well, isn't that special?
A little insight here, this particular breed is a this feline is a fairly new hybrid, blending wild and domestic bloodlines of the Ocicat and Bengal cats as well as the Asian leopard.
According to some, an animal taken from the wild and bred for domesticaton will have to go through about 20 generations before it could be considered "domesticated".
It should also be pointed out that these animals will range in size from 15 to 20 pounds.
That's a mighty big cat.
My question here is, since the "goal" here is "to have a large, sweet-natured lap cat that looks like a true jungle cat but has a completely dependable nature that can be trusted around anyone.", what will become of the animals that don't fit that criteria?
Do these breeders mean to suggest that they will provide lifetime care for the animals that are not " completely dependable", or will these animals be sold to people who may or may not know what they are getting?
If these animals prove to be more than the new owner can manage, what then will become of these animals?
There are several distinct possibilities:
1)The owner could return the cat to the breeder, who may in turn just use the animal as "breeding stock"
2)The owner will abandon the cat which poses it's own set of problems since, according to wildlife experts that a cat is one of the very few animals that can, after being domesticated revert to a wild animal.
3)The animal could deliver a vicious attack on someone's kid who just wanted to play with the kitty, having no idea that it was potentially dangerous.
This animal would probably be euthanized.
4)The owner decides to surrender the animal to an animal shelter and "lets them deal with it".
They might even give a false statement regarding the animals behavior (I work in an animal shelter, people lie to us all the time about their animals), hoping that the animal isn't "put down" and finds a home that is suitable.
Pretty twisted loyalty if you ask me-you're dumping your animal because you don't want the responsibility anymore, but you don't want me to have to put it to sleep if it proves to be a dangerous animal.
For a cat with behavior problems, we can pretty much tell by dealing with these animals each and every day which ones can make the cut and which may have to "meet the needle".
In the meantime, my staff has to feed, water and clean up after this animal which could pose a risk to them.
I'd rather deal with an aggressive 100 pound Rotty than try to wrangle a ticked off six-pound kitty-now you're telling me that you're breeding a cat that isn't too far removed from the wild and weighs in at 15-20 pounds?
Thanks a lot. You bred an animal that could cost my poor shelter an expensive workmans compensation claim and you made $1000.00 times however many animals you sold out of that litter. And you probably didn't claim it on your taxes.
Now can anyone understand why I support an expensive licensing fee for animal breeders?
There are very few "responsible animal breeders" in my opinion, especially those who claim to have such altruistic motivations such as a "love for the breed" or "improving the bloodline" usually have such a high price for the animals they are selling.
Looking over the classified section of the Virginian Pilot for Sunday, April 23rd, I decided to perform an informal, unscientific study.
I added up all of the prices for all of the animals that were for sale, the low side was $20.00, the extream was around $1500.00.
I averaged the costs and came up with the figure of $545.00 per animal.
Contrast that with the Beagle we took in from an older gent today who surrendered the animal because it was a puppy and he couldn't keep up with it.
This animal is neutered, up to date on all it's shots and even has a microchip for identification.
Available TODAY from the Portsmouth Humane Society for the princely sum of $60.00
We had a Golden LAb named Roscoe at our shelter, great dog, LIVED fetch a ball, rode well in the car and followed simple voice commands.
Thank GOD we got him into an animal rescue and it saved his life, but $60.00 would have gotten you one great dog and you'd have had a LOT of money left over for supplies, Vet care and food as opposed to the $700.00 that the purebreds golden labe in the paper were being sold for.
As a society, we need to stop and ask ourselves some serious questions about why we want a pet.
Do we want a pet as a status symbol to impress others, or are we seeking to fill a void in our life that a pet would fill with their non-judgemental and unconditional love for us nomatter who we are?
Are we promoting misery and needless death of companion animals by robbing an animal in a shelter of a potential home by supporting animal breeders ever-increasing prices?
As far as love and affection goes, I have cats on the adoption floor right now that I will match up against any cat at any price-mine will loove you just as much, and you will quite literally be saving their life.
That is reward enough on it's own.
If you are a breeder, then I would invite you to our shelter and ask you to watch as we euthanize a number of animals equal to the number of animals you have bred for sale-you might as well be there becasue your actions were in part responsible for their deaths. I am getting a little tired of hearing people say to us, "Oh, but you kill animals".
Yes, we do kill, put to sleep, euthanize, check them out, stamp their ticket as well as "send them to the other side" and any other euphimisim that happens to be popular-and it breaks my heart each and every time I see an empty cage that was once occupied by a wonderful cat and I don't have any corrosponding adoption paperwork. I have NIGHTMARES about it.
But I know that at some point, we have to decide at what point are we keeping an animal in a cage day after day while it grows depressed or "cage aggressive" knowing full well that we can't build floor after floor onto our shelter, we don't have the staff to care for them all forever and we know that as soon as one get's adopted, one or two more are on the way-it is kitten and puppy season.
If we don't take them, what will the person who just wants to "get rid of them" do if there is noplace that will care for, protect and try to find them a new home? The person turning the animal in has had enough, so unless we're there to take the animal, can we count on them doing the right thing?
We aren't taking that chance.
I've just given you a little insight into my world-every day we go to work in the hopes that when we're finished our cages will be empty and our adoptions will equal the number of animals that were in our shelter. It rarely happens that way, but we can't stop trying.
Back to our breeder friends, sure they think it's cool breeding an exotic cat and spending the extra money they are making-but they are simply responding to a demand by a very self-absorbed society who doesn't stop to think about what their actions are causing.
I think about it every time I hear the lock on the pharmacy closet open and the clock starts ticking down it's last few moments for some unlucky animals we just couldn't save.