Kitten farms

Chuchote

The Gardaí and the Customs, bless them, keep finding puppies in vans and cars being sent to England from puppy farms. But so far I've seen no reports of kittens, yet I've heard there are kitten farms.
How are the kittens slipping through? (All right, I admit it, I'm waiting for them to have some Burmese kittens they need loving homes for )

muddypaws

I've never heard of kitten farms, as people don't tend to pay for kittens, or if they do, its not very much - except for pedigrees of course, but there isn't a huge market for them.

Nody

Chuchote wrote: »

The Gardaí and the Customs, bless them, keep finding puppies in vans and cars being sent to England from puppy farms. But so far I've seen no reports of kittens, yet I've heard there are kitten farms.
How are the kittens slipping through? (All right, I admit it, I'm waiting for them to have some Burmese kittens they need loving homes for )

I've had some people contact me for certain rescues that could be passed off as pedigree cats who lost all interest the moment I mentioned they were all neutered before leaving us. They even tried to argue that no need to neuter them and that they would do it instead on our behalf to save the rescue the money (we might do it for a random kitten to an experienced owner but ANY pedigree looking cat is 100% neutered before leaving without exception)...

But yea; outside certain pedigree style cats you're unlikely to make big money (and said pedigree cats tends to have a limited market).

Chuchote

Really? Glad to hear it! I had got the wrong impression from reading about "puppy and kitten farms" - and for that matter visiting a pet farm near Dublin years ago where there were boxes of puppies and kittens, no mother to be seen.

njs030

I've never heard of a kitten farm? I didn't think cats sell for hundreds of Euro like dogs do they?

DBB

I'm only surmising here, but I'm guessing that purebred cats are a much bigger deal in some countries than in Ireland, and those countries are where you'll find kitten farms.

njs030

DBB wrote: »

I'm only surmising here, but I'm guessing that purebred cats are a much bigger deal in some countries than in Ireland, and those countries are where you'll find kitten farms.

I googled it since my last post, saw a news article in Australia and a couple of others so you're probably right, it's not an Irish issue I wouldn't think.

Themadhouse

They certainly do exist but not on the scale that dog farms exist.

If you look at done deal you will see reems of pedigree cats for sale. Most of these cats are being bred non registered, bought on non active and still being bred, churning kittens out far too often, too many breeding cats, no testing done etc etc and kittens are the same price as ethical breeders kittens.

People dont have patience to wait for a kitten so will buy wherever. Some want to breed because they think there is money in it and when they are refused by an ethical breeder they buy elsewhere where the seller doesnt give a ****.
Dams/sires in awful conditions, starving, over bred, lack of human contact, lack of vet visits etc etc.

So while kitten farms are not huge barns and lots of cages they do still exist in a different way.

edited to add: like dog breeding there is money in it if you do it to get money. If you breed ethically you wont make money, most of the time you end up at a loss. Kitten farmers breed to make money on the popular pedigrees, the same as puppy farmers. We have also seen an increase of mix breeds appear the same as in the dog world, cockapoos etc.

Themadhouse

notjustsweet wrote: »

I've never heard of a kitten farm? I didn't think cats sell for hundreds of Euro like dogs do they?

you will pay between 600 and 1200 for a pedigree cat depending on the breed.

njs030

Themadhouse wrote: »

you will pay between 600 and 1200 for a pedigree cat depending on the breed.

Seriously????? Wow.

Chuchote

Themadhouse wrote: »

you will pay between 600 and 1200 for a pedigree cat depending on the breed.

If the cat has papers, obviously.

I was, of course, joking about wanting to buy a kitten farmed in this manner; I would be very hesitant indeed to take an animal that hadn't been raised and socialised by its mother; a friend bought a puppy from a man in a car park and the poor creature was completely unable to deal with other animals and with humans, would tremble and become aggressive, could not be trusted at all; ended up being put to sleep after biting several people. My friend had something like seven years of endless sorrow with this dog, much loved but quite crazy, utterly unstable, impossible to socialise.

Themadhouse

Chuchote wrote: »

If the cat has papers, obviously.

I was, of course, joking about wanting to buy a kitten farmed in this manner; I would be very hesitant indeed to take an animal that hadn't been raised and socialised by its mother; a friend bought a puppy from a man in a car park and the poor creature was completely unable to deal with other animals and with humans, would tremble and become aggressive, could not be trusted at all; ended up being put to sleep after biting several people. My friend had something like seven years of endless sorrow with this dog, much loved but quite crazy, utterly unstable, impossible to socialise.

With papers and sometimes fake papers and a lot of times no papers but people will pay cos they don't have to wait for a kitten.

Poor puppy. It's heartbreaking. :-(

Chuchote

You can check papers with the Cat Fancy.

I was under the impression that it was illegal to sell living creatures through small ads (including online). Was I wrong?

Themadhouse

Chuchote wrote: »

You can check papers with the Cat Fancy.

I was under the impression that it was illegal to sell living creatures through small ads (including online). Was I wrong?

Yep you can of unsure.

Never heard of it being illegal tbh.

Chuchote

Themadhouse wrote: »

Yep you can of unsure.

Never heard of it being illegal tbh.

http://www.thejournal.ie/dspca-done-deal-puppies-online-trading-1467756-May2014/

DSPCA tried to make DoneDeal stop allowing sale of animals (as they should); DoneDeal have a complicated and rather meaningless-sounding policy on animal sale. Edit - however, they may check well, I don't know. Adverts.ie seems good, and seems to have lots of posters keeping an eye out.