another new observation-kitty's are plentiful & no one wants them this year;o(

For the last 10 years or so, I have had more clients than kittens. But
this year I decided to bow out because of several reasons which most
of you know...
A good guide to the kitty market is a news paper called the Ad
Trader. In there you can see the current kitty market situation, what
is available, what is in too much abundance of & how much they are
charging too. Last year, I noticed that for a simple barn born kitten,
they were charging over £30-& up to £50 each. I found that quite
staggering. You would have been financially better off getting an
older kitty ( or kitten if you must) from a shelter where they charge
£50 but that included all injections to date, & made you sign an
agreement to take them back to have boosters done yearly;a contract if
you must....

This spring, I notice that people are giving kittens away to good
homes. what a 100% turn around. Normally in spring, if you have
kittens, you are more or less guaranteed a home for the kittens, but
not this year, that is for sure!! No one seems to be vetting who takes
their kittens ,& frankly the owners are simply giving them away to any
old person who is willing to take them off their hands ( I rang a few
just to enquire about them, & the only check that I was asked in 5
separate calls, was have you had a cat before..?!! That is so sad!!).
I even notice that some of them are repeat advertising their kittens
that they simply can't home them. It looks like we have reached a
kitty peak & now we are sliding down the slippery road that all of our
american friends describe to us. Even Pedigree prices have slipped
down the scale. I was able to charge anywhere between £300 -£500;£300
for a pet & £500 for a breeding cat..now I notice that the price has
gone down to £300 for a very good quality kitten...
It looks like the Cat Protection League has a lot of work to do
convincing owners to have their cats both spayed and neutered. I can
feel a "I told you so" coming, but in my case it is preaching to the
converted..
I was wondering what good arguments that I could put across to
convince any old person in the road that it is the right thing to do,
please? Because this is where we need to take this message, as well as
into schools too. teach kids at a young age, & they will do what is
right when they get older.

Aids has worked with the condom theory, so this might also
S;o)

On 28 Apr, 15:14, sheelagh wrote:
For the last 10 years or so, I have had more clients than kittens. But
this year I decided to bow out because of several reasons which most
of you know...
A good guide to the kitty market is a news paper called the Ad
Trader. In there you can see the current kitty market situation, what
is available, what is in too much abundance of & how much they are
charging too. Last year, I noticed that for a simple barn born kitten,
they were charging over £30-& up to £50 each. I found that quite
staggering. You would have been financially better off getting an
older kitty ( or kitten if you must) from a shelter where they charge
£50 but that included all injections to date, & made you sign an
agreement to take them back to have boosters done yearly;a contract if
you must....

This spring, I notice that people are giving kittens away to good
homes. what a 100% turn around. Normally in spring, if you have
kittens, you are more or less guaranteed a home for the kittens, but
not this year, that is for sure!! No one seems to be vetting who takes
their kittens ,& frankly the owners are simply giving them away to any
old person who is willing to take them off their hands ( I rang a few
just to enquire about them, & the only check that I was asked in 5
separate calls, was have you had a cat before..?!! That is so sad!!).
I even notice that some of them are repeat advertising their kittens
that they simply can't home them. It looks like we have reached a
kitty peak & now we are sliding down the slippery road that all of our
american friends describe to us. Even Pedigree prices have slipped
down the scale. I was able to charge anywhere between £300 -£500;£300
for a pet & £500 for a breeding cat..now I notice that the price has
gone down to £300 for a very good quality kitten...
It looks like the Cat Protection League has a lot of work to do
convincing owners to have their cats both spayed and neutered. I can
feel a "I told you so" coming, but in my case it is preaching to the
converted..
I was wondering what good arguments that I could put across to
convince any old person in the road that it is the right thing to do,
please? Because this is where we need to take this message, as well as
into schools too. teach kids at a young age, & they will do what is
right when they get older.

Aids has worked with the condom theory, so this might also
S;o)

I was wondering what good arguments that I could put across to
convince any old person in the road that it is the right thing to do,
please? Because this is where we need to take this message, as well as
into schools too. teach kids at a young age, & they will do what is
right when they get older.

By good argument, I don't mean the obvious one like you are doing the
right thing ..

I meant something that has a shock factor that would really make them
think long and damned hard on this one. I know there are too many cats
in the UK, & so do they. IMHO they allowed these cats to become
pregnant because they thought they could earn a quick few quid, but in
this case, it has backfired right in their faces...
I was wondering if there is a shock tactic to make them see how wrong
it is, other than printing off Phil's infamous picture of waste dogs
and cats?
If I tried that one, I would probably get arrested & be associated
with the worse class of animal Liberators and that is not I want to
convey. I want to explain that it is up to them to make sure we don't
have to look @ photos like that!! As you have a few more experience on
this subject than we do, I was hoping that you might have some
pointers please?
S;o)

On Apr 28, 10:41 am, sheelagh wrote:
On 28 Apr, 15:14, sheelagh wrote:





For the last 10 years or so, I have had more clients than kittens. But
this year I decided to bow out because of several reasons which most
of you know...
A good guide to the kitty market is a news paper called the Ad
Trader. In there you can see the current kitty market situation, what
is available, what is in too much abundance of & how much they are
charging too. Last year, I noticed that for a simple barn born kitten,
they were charging over £30-& up to £50 each. I found that quite
staggering. You would have been financially better off getting an
older kitty ( or kitten if you must) from a shelter where they charge
£50 but that included all injections to date, & made you sign an
agreement to take them back to have boosters done yearly;a contract if
you must....

This spring, I notice that people are giving kittens away to good
homes. what a 100% turn around. Normally in spring, if you have
kittens, you are more or less guaranteed a home for the kittens, but
not this year, that is for sure!! No one seems to be vetting who takes
their kittens ,& frankly the owners are simply giving them away to any
old person who is willing to take them off their hands ( I rang a few
just to enquire about them, & the only check that I was asked in 5
separate calls, was have you had a cat before..?!! That is so sad!!).
I even notice that some of them are repeat advertising their kittens
that they simply can't home them. It looks like we have reached a
kitty peak & now we are sliding down the slippery road that all of our
american friends describe to us. Even Pedigree prices have slipped
down the scale. I was able to charge anywhere between £300 -£500;£300
for a pet & £500 for a breeding cat..now I notice that the price has
gone down to £300 for a very good quality kitten...
It looks like the Cat Protection League has a lot of work to do
convincing owners to have their cats both spayed and neutered. I can
feel a "I told you so" coming, but in my case it is preaching to the
converted..
I was wondering what good arguments that I could put across to
convince any old person in the road that it is the right thing to do,
please? Because this is where we need to take this message, as well as
into schools too. teach kids at a young age, & they will do what is
right when they get older.

Aids has worked with the condom theory, so this might also
S;o)
I was wondering what good arguments that I could put across to
convince any old person in the road that it is the right thing to do,
please? Because this is where we need to take this message, as well as
into schools too. teach kids at a young age, & they will do what is
right when they get older.

By good argument, I don't mean the obvious one like you are doing the
right thing ..

I meant something that has a shock factor that would really make them
think long and damned hard on this one. I know there are too many cats
in the UK, & so do they. IMHO they allowed these cats to become
pregnant because they thought they could earn a quick few quid, but in
this case, it has backfired right in their faces...
I was wondering if there is a shock tactic to make them see how wrong
it is, other than printing off Phil's infamous picture of waste dogs
and cats?
If I tried that one, I would probably get arrested & be associated
with the worse class of animal Liberators and that is not I want to
convey. I want to explain that it is up to them to make sure we don't
have to look @ photos like that!! As you have a few more experience on
this subject than we do, I was hoping that you might have some
pointers please?

Short of Phil's picture, there are very few quick "shock factor" type
things that you can use. There ARE some good arguments, if you can
have a real conversation with the person:

Spayed/neutered animals are easier to live with. They don't mark, they
don't call, they're calmer.

For both males and females, there are real health benefits: they don't
get mammary, uterine, or testicular cancer; the repeated heat cycles
are hard on the female's system, and pregnancy isn't a day at the
beach, either. And you should be able to tell them more than I know
about the costs and labor of caring for a pregnant female, or for a
nursing queen and her kittens.

Point out to them that people ARE giving away kittens "free to a good
home" with no checking on the home. Spaying a female pays for itself
in the kittens you don't have raise and then give away.

They stick closer to home. They're not roaming looking for mates, and
as a result, they're less likely to get into fights, get hit by cars,
or get picked up by crazies. (Of course, even keeping them inside all
the time doesn't *completely* eliminate the risk of crazies; we're
talking about improving the odds, here.) They're less likely to pick
up parasites and infections, too.

Neutering a male may pay for itself in the veterinary care he doesn't
need for the effects of the fights he doesn't get into.

Overall, they'll greatly increase their chances of having a healthy,
happy, *long-term* pet.

As for those offering kittens "free to a good home," if you have any
opportunity to talk to any of them in a non-confrontational way, try
to point out to them that serial killers like Ted Bundy (well, insert
locally familiar sicko in place of Ted Bundy) often start out by
"practicing" on "free to a good home" pets. Encourage them to charge
at least a nominal price or "adoption fee." £10, maybe? And then spend
the money on spaying their pet?

Lis

Lis wrote:



Point out to them that people ARE giving away kittens "free to a good
home" with no checking on the home.

It goes on all the time. I got Speedy Joe from a friend who needed to find a
home for him and decided we would do because we liked cats and had a garden
(This is years ago when I didn't know about indoor cat keeping). Fugazi and
Isis were "free to good home" from a friend of a friend, to be fair, he did
ask if we'd had cats before and insisted on inspecting our home before
releasing them to is. Redunzel and Sarrasine were "free to a good home" as
well from someone I was working with and had only known for a week or two who
let me have them on the grounds "Its obvious you like cats"

They've all been lucky in that we have provided them with a good home and
love and care but that doesn't mean it doesn't worry me when I see "Free to
good homes" adverts

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

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