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.

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best purrs

Ra

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

yeh, unfortunately there is those breeders who are not ethical and really are not too concerned about where the kit is going but the money that is coming in

But this must be minimal as when I was looking for my first Ragdoll alot of breeders wanted to "vet" any potential new owners which I found quite refreshing.

When I ended up getting Alfie (apparently his new owner to be let the breeder down) the Breeder did not ask what kind of house I lived in, who I lived with ie other pets, children etc and whether indeed I had any previous experience with Ragdolls.

Luckily I did my research on Ragdolls before I got Alfie and he has more love than a kitten could ever want but this is probably not the case for all the kittens this breeder sells

I agree to a certain point.. here's my thoughts (without wanting to upset anyone )

Rescue centres can only see it from their point of view, the amount of half dead, ill cats they must get in must tarnish their views.. I know it would mine if I worked in one. We got our first cat from Cats protection, who were wonderful.. they came out to visit us, checked out the area we lived in, what the house was like etc. We also had to sign a contract that said what we could & couldn't do.

I guess their view on breeders is twofold, where they do know of the best and the worst... unfortunately the rescue centres don't get to see the good breeders.. they end up picking up the pieces when the worst does happen.

There are misguided views from both sides of the fence I guess... sadly the two "worlds" are destined not to get on IMO

yeh I just hope most breeders are like you on that, which I think must be as breeding cats isn't an easy job, especially if you genuinly love them.

I didn't realise what sort of place Alfie was in till I got there, then couldn't leave him behind! But he's a happy kitty now

Yeh the rescue centres are only seeing one side of the story, that includes unwanted pedigree cats.

I have only ever had moggies so can't really say much about breeders, although I have nothing against them, and I have seen some beautiful cats on this forum.
I would like to mention my experience with rescue centres. When I was desperate for a cat, and had a lovely experienced home waiting for a rescue pet, the rescue centres didn't want to know I contacted 3 in my area.
They were rude, unhelpful, and i was left with the impression that they would rather keep their cats at the centres than let me have one. I was told that they would be in touch if they had anything suitable, and needless to say they never did. They never met me or visited my home, so all their judgements were made over the phone.
Now I completly understand that they only want them to go to good homes, and I am the first person who would put animal welfare above and beyond the wishes of a perspective owner, but the whole thing really upset me and left me with a dim view of some rescue centres, and their staff.
This story does have a happy ending, as I eventualy rehomed a feral kitten which was born in a friends garage, he was just 5 weeks old when I had him and in areal state. He is now almost 6 and the biggest (not fat just huge) cat I have ever sen!.

I had the same experience when i rescued my first cat patti, I rang so many rescue centres and no1 was prepared to listen to me as i was only 17 which i was disgusted at, I eventually found a lady who worked along side the cats protection who let me come ad look at her rescues, as soon as i saw patti i knew she was the one for me, she had a lot of problems and had a split personality a lot like jekyl and hyde and the lady was very upfront and told me straight away about her behaviour. I had her 8 years n she never changed until 3 days before she died.
I had snoopy on her own for 3 weeks before i was even considered to be allowed to rescue a cat which made me feel like i wasn't worthy of rescuing a cat. All the rescue centres i rang talked down to me and i considered giving up but then i found peanuts and fought to get her n she's been her 6 months now.
They make it to hard to rescue a cat i understand they have the cats best interests at heart but its very off putting for a genuine person x

I think peoples opinions are always coloured by their own experiences. You get anti breeder vibes from some vets, but again like rescue centres they probably more often see and are affected by the unscrupulous kitten farmers out there over breeding and selling small sickly kittens with no particular care where the kitten goes or in what condition they leave their house as long as they have full payment in their hand. In reality those people are hopefully in the minority in the big scheme of things but like anything mud sticks and for those people who have come into contact with individuals like that they tar all breeders with the same brush.

It's freedom of choice at the end of the day, if you particularly want an Oriental kitten to love your first port of call would not be a rescue centre. So any breeder with oriental kittens for adoption are not taking away a potential adoptee from a rescue.

Just to be very controversial there are loads of kids out there waiting for loving homes, why doesn’t anyone say to people wanting a family that they shouldn’t be having kids of their own they should be adopting one of those kids first ?