Didn't want to hijack BabyBlond's thread entitled "so upset" which was chiefly about how she was upset by someone - the thread was turning into a new debate which I thought merited its own thread.

Liz (post No 19) said that Rescue Centres don't want anyone breeding cats, not even pedigrees and Maxwell (post no 20) mentioned someone visiting their shop originally asking for dog rescue posters, and after the conversation got going, she went on to berate those who breed cats, citing the rescue centres full of cats etc. Selk (Post 21) said that rescue centres are for cats who have been dumped not from caring homes whose breeders know exactly what they are doing, and May (post no 22) replied "people like that make me sick". Hope my summary is ok.

I agree that rescue centres have a place - unfortunately, as we all know, and Selk pointed out, not all cat homes are like our own. In fact, for many reasons, cats will find their ways to rescue centres who do a good job. They look after cats whose owners have passed away or who cannot take them abroad when the family leave the country or who do not have a network of people who know how to or are willing to look after cats.

However, I think there are some people (some who work in rescue centres) who only see the world from their own point of view. These people do not see how many people deliberately seek out a particular breed of cat. There are those who will seek out for example, a lovely oriental from a breeder and in order to give this pedigree cat a playmate, would consider going to a rescue centre to give a home to one of those too. Others will just take two from the pedigree litter. Anyway, the world is not just black and white.

As far as I am aware, most breeders of pedigree cats will arrange very carefully for every single one of their kittens to be well homed when the time is right. Rescue staff often seem to overlook this. All the work that they do at the rescue centre is also done by breeders who care for each kitten born. A good breeder will not only make sure the kitten is healthy, vaccinated, and treated against worms etc but also insured and to the best of our ability, also, neutered or spayed if the kitten is not intended to be bred from.

__________________
best purrs

Ra

http://www.bobergsiamese.co.uk/