Cat tales and more

In my years of having pets I have met breeders. There are those who love the pets they breed. They treat these pets like family. And then there are others who treat their breeding pets like animal factories. Experience has taught me that I should stay away from breeders who don’t know anything about the parents of their new litter.

I have also heard many horror stories about breeders who have five or six different breeds of dogs. They cage their breeder animals and sell the litters as soon as they can. One story goes that a breeder somewhere in the San Juan area has hundreds of cages where he keeps all sorts of dogs for breeding. These dogs are not allowed to walk or do anything else. Yes, they are fed but that’s about it. When the time for breeding comes they perform their task and afterwards, it’s back to the cage for them.

There are other breeders who don’t even space breeding time. It is good to let the female dog take a breather of one or two heats before she is bred again. This way, she can recover from the puppy birth.

But in fairness to breeders I have also encountered some of the most loving pet lovers who are also breeders. These breeders like to know who is buying their puppies and to what kind of homes the puppies will go. They also let the pet buyer get to know the parents of the pups in the litter and explain – in much detail – what the parents are like as well as what the breed is like.

One of rules I follow if I am in search of a new pet is to make sure I get a few tips from people who own the pet that I am looking for. Normally these folks can lead me to the good and not-so-good breeders.

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Last week, I got this story sent to me by Anna Cabrera of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). Anna informed me that she got it from one of their volunteers. Read on and see what you think.

My vet has this client who breeds Siamese cats. The breeder has a new litter of two males and two females. He kept a pair of kittens (male and female) for breeding, and sold the other kittens. He was able to sell the female but not the male. He asked my vet to board the male kitten and  try to sell him to the clinic’s clients. He promised to pay for the boarding of the kitten.

I used to see that kitten in the clinic when he was still small. Three months have passed and he’s still at the clinic. About a month ago, my vet got very worried because the kitten started to cry every day from being cooped up in a cage. But the breeder still refused to get the kitten back.

My vet said he asked the owner of the kitten to get him out because there were no interested buyers. He also informed the breeder that his bill for three months’ boarding is P9,000. The breeder said he doesn’t have that kind of money, so the vet said okay, he will give discount P6,000. The breeder refused to take back his kitten. He said it was up to the vet to sell him and can keep the money from the sale. He also suggested that, if there were no buyers, the vet should take him to UP to be euthanized, or abandon him in the streets.

Two days later, the breeder called the vet and told him that he bought a male Siamese kitten for P5,000.

The vet said he was speechless, and couldn’t believe how unprofessional this client/breeder was. He was willing to euthanize or abandon his own perfectly healthy male Siamese kitten, yet had the callousness to buy another male Siamese kitten.

The breeder is a Swedish national married to a Filipina.