Sharing all Matters cat-related. Ethics...health...stewardship...cat showing...abuse and everything in between!

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Are Cat Breeders Without Morals?

How is it possible for a human being to wilfully abuse animals, and then brazenly lie about it? I speak here about cat breeders (naturally), but of course we see much of the same in the dog and horse world, as well as any realm where animals are bred for the edification and profiteering of humans (including "sport" canned hunting of captive-bred wild animals). It's not limited. It's an unjolly wide world of animal abuse.

But let's stick to cats in this blog.

Here's a recent case of one Betty Gould, she of throwing her unwanted cats into the river in garbage bags infamy. She has a couple of charges against her, the latest being due to be heard in court in January 2013.

She was spotted lobbing a garbage bag into the river, and on investigation two live (thankfully) Persian cats were discovered. Disgusting. And it seems there have been other instances of cats being found in the same river, so the modus operandii seems to be clearly established. She is apparently the only local Persian cat breeder, so although there is no conclusive evidence to link her to these earlier incidents (unless the other cats found can be linked to her website), one can draw one's own conclusions, and you don't have to be a genius to arrive at the probable conclusion.

On her website, she states :

"I have been a breeder for 20 years. I have very small cattery and all my persians are treated like pets. They are the love of my life and they give me lots of love! Sir garfield got the second best of color in the northwest region and thinker bell was the first calico smoke shown. My goal is to produce the chocolate and lilac chinchillas and bicolor. I have white that are also chocolate carriers! I am breeding for excellent health and personality! My persians have been tested for pkd at the university of california and are negative."

See Snowbunnies Persians.

Her "small cattery" is 60 cats, and her treatment of them is, from the evidence, contemptible. Notice the emphasis from the website blurb on wins and awards. And if we can't believe the other statements, I wonder whether she has any real documented proof that her cats are PKD-negative? How sad that tacky little personages like this should have to resort to abusing cats to get their jollies on the show circuit. How callous they are to be able to put a living creature in a bag and discard it like so much trash. This is how much this type of person cares. And they can sleep at night. That in itself might give one pause for thought.

And how conniving and deceitful it is that so much patent drivel is spoken on websites in order to delude the potential buyer into supporting the lifestyles of these objects. (I nearly said "creatures", but no creature should be defiled by being grouped together with personages of that ilk).

So here's the page dealing with the cat discarding incident : Another abusive hypocrite

In case you think this is an isolated case, it's not. When you start to look inside the cat fancy pandora's box, you find a world of people of apparently little character, lying to themselves, each other and the public. Sure, there are some "good" breeders (apparently, so we are told?), but observation tells me these are by no means the majority. They like to pretend the bad apples are few, but (in the South African cat fancy at least), the rot goes right to the top, and everybody knows it, condones it and plays along. It seems the same applies in the CFA, if reading some of their documentation is anything to go by, and their strenuous objections to home inspections by animal welfare authorities. (If you go to the information page on the above Snowbunnies website, you will see the CFA letterhead, congratulating her on a regional award. I bet the CFA now claims they've never heard of her), although she's a holder of a CFA "Cattery of Excellence" award (see How excellent! Not... ) Ah - what are such empty titles really worth?

And then of course you have breeders who openly state "We are a DNA- testing cattery" - and then proceed to sell you a persian cat which is carrying PKD (or one of many other delicious little genetic f*ck ups that they know are in the lines) and which, if it doesn't die by the age or between 3 and 6, will live precariously on a low-protein diet for the rest of its days, and then have to be put out of its misery in later life. This is not Quality of Life. This is cat abuse - do breeders actually have ANY concern for the pain many of the cats they breed will go through in their lives? And do they have the slightest concern for the pain and anguish they put their cat owners through - as well as the cost? "But I have a genetic clause in my contract!" they shriek. "Anything that can be proved to be of genetic origin in the first year, you can send the cat back and we will replace it". Yeah - like a piece of merchandise. Totally ignoring the fact that most genetic problems are going to only be seen between 3 and 6 years, or a bit later. And the vast majority of these genetic problems can be tested for, and eliminated from the bloodline. But they don't want to forgo the money they have spent, so they put "DNA- tested" on their websites and pass on the kittens happily.

I mean, how can a person of good character choose to spend their time rubbing shoulders with conniving, lying, cheating, abusive so-called "colleagues". How can they exist inside a federation which subsists on the power of threat and coercion? I'm at a loss to understand it. Birds of a feather and all that.

Doesn't make sense. Unless you're beholden to others to boost your ego at any cost. And that makes you pitifully weak. People with healthy self-images don't need to resort to abusing animals for fun or profit, and they don't need the approval of others to feel good about themselves. And they certainly don't need to sit up and beg for rewards.

2 comments:

  1. selection of your topic regarding cat breeds are just too awesome, i really appreciate the way you are working on this blog. Lost and found

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    1. thank you Liama - I'm pleased you are enjoying reading these posts. Spread the word!

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