WARNING

*** BUYERS AND SELLERS PLEASE BEWARE ***

BUYERS AND SELLERS BEWARE: Please, wherever you go to buy your new kitten, make sure it is from a registered breeder, from healthy, fit parents and that it is vaccinated, registered and insured. This is the only way you can be sure that the kitten you are buying is a pure breed, not just a look-a-like, and who has undergone vaccinations and health checks.

We are posting this warning after suffering such a deceitful experience that we would dearly want others to avoid.

It is with great sadness and much anger that we have discovered that one of our little girls has ended up in the hands of an unscrupulous 'back street' breeder in Mansfield, Nottingham. She was a dear little thing, who was very small and had quite a bad heart murmur, sold as a pet to a lady and her daughter in February 2003, who seemed so nice and just wanted a 'companion' to their one other cat - a pretence they kept up whenever I enquired about our kitten! They were in full knowledge of her heart condition and did, in fact, have a long conversation with our vet about her outlook. It seemed such an ideal home and I was happy to let this kitten go for just the deposit paid, as a loving home is worth far more than money. I am sure, had I stuck out for the full pet price, they would have walked away, but I was trying to be fair - they were just trying it on!

Peaches was registered on the 'Non Active' Register and what responsible person in their right mind would have bought her for breeding purposes? It was quite by accident that I found out that this loving pet home did not exist and she was one of many breeding queens - all different colour Persians being kept in a small house with a Smoke stud cat running loose amongst them. The Chinchilla is a much smaller boned variety than a Smoke, so to be mated with a much larger breed of cat, would put her in even more danger of a difficult birth, and the resultant kittens would certainly not be Chinchillas, even though we understand they are being sold as such with no paperwork for £250, no vaccinations and health checks at an unhealthily early age.

Indeed, a vet treating one of her recently sold kittens for health problems and ringworm, has estimated its age at only 6 - 8 weeks old.

We now know that at 20 months she has had several litters and is indeed in kitten now due end July/early August 2004. My vet shares my disgust and feels they are lucky that she has survived the ordeal and avoided a caesarean operation. She wrote a letter confirming this heart condition, to accompany mine asking for my little cat back. I have received a telephone call telling me that Peaches is none of my business and they will do what they like with her.

So BUYERS please take care - we are always happy to give advice wherever you are buying your kitten from.

SELLERS: We were so taken in, that we now propose to use Contracts and even consider 'Early Neutering'. If any of you have sold a Persian to someone in the Mansfield, Nottingham area as a pet, possibly to this woman, do get in touch, we would like to hear from you. She has a website showing a Red, a solid Black, a Colourpoints, Torties and others. Her website also has a breeding "title" which implies she has a Registered Prefix, which of course she does not.

If we can prevent any more cats going this way, we'll spare no effort.

Update (March 2006)...

Towards the end of 2004, this breeder removed the photograph of Peaches from her website, we guess, in an attempt to be less recognisable. She is still not willing to have Peaches spayed and return her to me or any other of the loving pet homes that have been offered. In fact, a male Chinchilla stud cat called Max is now featured, so obviously the Chinchillas are proving very saleable, and poor Peaches is likely to be in even more demand.

We are obviously not the only people with a grievance against this breeder. A very supportive friend has discovered her listed on an American website that publicly names and shames breeders with bad practices. This person is the only UK breeder on the list! For further details see the The Bad Pedigree Cat Breeders Info Site. In fairness to both parties, it contacts the breeder concerned and gives them the opportunity to publicly respond and defend themselves, if desired. Briefly, as can be seen, the complaint is from a lady, who along with a friend, has purchased kittens from this breeder, only to find that the kittens were infected with Ringworm and both families duly caught it too. No sympathy or support was offered when the breeder was contacted, just denial. Her kitten aftercare is obviously carried out with as much conscience as when she bought Peaches for a so-called pet companion.

This website is well worth a look. We have now added our complaint and wish that something similar were allowed in the UK. There is a page for you to leave any comments you may have.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Thanks also to The Bad Pedigree Cat Breeders Info Site for their support.

Peaches