to think if you breed and sell animals you relinquish all say when money changes hands? <petty!>

[SomethingVicardThisWayComes]

im a bit pissed off.

i am a massive animal lover and i have a house full of waifs and strays. last year i rescued 7 rats from the adoption centre at pets at home and needed a couple of boy rats to keep one of the rescues company.
i travelled miles and bought 2 from a breeder.
i care very much for all my animals and the rats have led a life of riley! they are spoilt rotten. they get the best food, i buy them fresh fruit and veg along with expensive dry mixes, they get lots of cuddles and they come out to play most days.

recently i rescued 3 kittens that had been found abandoned for dead in a rented house, they had been shut in a cupboard.
i took them in and am treating them for flu, ive wormed them, etc etc.
so i now have 5 cats and 2 dogs, i had 9 rats (now down to 6 )

my boy rats are massive and bigger than the rescue kittens. the other day i let them meet each other and took a few cute pictures, which i posted on FB. all my animals need to live in harmony.

the breeder of the rats commented on my fb pics and ranted at me saying i was wrong to mix predator and prey.....well no one told them they were predator and prey and they were fine together, just as my dogs are fine with my cats.

breeder ranted on my pics and said she didnt like it especially as she had bred 2 of the rats.
i sent a polite message apologising and saying they were never in any danger and i supervised them for the whole meeting which lasted less than a minute.

i got another snotagram back.

so now im a bit sick of biting my tongue and ive basically said if you breed animals for profit and sell them you get sod all say from then on in unless its an issue of cruelty. ive asked if she follows every single one of her sales to check they are being properly cared for....
my animals are spoilt rotten. id never mistreat or hurt them and they are pampered pets....
its pissed me right off that she has seen fit to comment and chide me over fb when she sells rats for a tenner a throw....
if you breed and sell animals for profit i think you lose the moral high ground in their upbringing from there on in.

its nice that she is bothered enough to comment but really.....if she is that bothered she should stop breeding and selling them. im betting that there are rats out there she bred that are far worse off than mine....

ive been quite restrained so far but would i be unreasonable to tell her to piss off and bother someone else....?
id have liked more rats but i get the feeling im now off her xmas card list....

YANBU. I used to have a rabbit and a dog as a child. The dog would chase the rabbit around the garden, then the rabbit would turn round and chase the dog round the garden. They lived together happily for many years without the dog eating, or even frightening, the rabbit. They are not wild animals. They are well fed, domestic pets. Yes the instincts are still there, but I don't think there is much of a problem as long as they are well supervised.

The world is full of people who really, really love their animals, and spend all their money on them, but who don't necessarily know what is best for the animals in question. I don't doubt you love yours, but that is entirely irrelevant to the matter in hand.

I think it's a mark of a good breeder that they are bothered by what happens to their animals after they sell them. They are selling live creatures, not hamburgers.

Are these contracts actually legally enforceable?!

I think you are being very naive. I know pets are family but they are still animals and have animal instincts.

I think id just delete and block her ,, ok so these animals are predator and prey but if brought up together they don't become that ,,, Im just glad she never saw my grown bearded dragon and my cat sat in the viv together (would have been a great fb picture ) xx

I think you are dealing with a person that originally means well, but that you have given her "lip", has a power trip. Ignore, ignore and defriend. (and keep her messages...)

Lots of inter-species friendships can develop between all sorts of animals if they are introduced correctly and (preferably) early.

You sound lovely, your animals sound loved, and she is being unreasonable.

We used to have a rescue rabbit and cats and dogs, and they all got on fine. The rabbit would be free to roam the garden and paddock during day-time, and the cats / dogs never bothered him. He used to have wild rabbits come to visit him too!

Something don't let it get to you. You've done a fantastic job of rescuing these kittens and caring for your other animals.

She's just a loon.

You know your own animals and know how they should be handled and cared for

Up until a few weeks ago I had a very excitable Jack Russell living with a hamster, which people told us would be a disaster because JRTs are hunting dogs. We kept the dog in his crate whenever the hamster was out and it turned out that he was terrified of the tiny thing! There was a hilarious moment when the hamster started nibbling on a biscuit that the dog had left on the floor and the dog started to cry. He would watch him through the tank with his head cocked but never once made any move towards the hammy.

I really don't think you've done anything wrong, the woman sounds mental.

OP you obviously have good experience with animals, it is not like you were abusing them fgs. Yes predator and prey can be together, if they are brought up in the same environment. There are are cats and dogs living in the same house all fine, so are cats and birds. She obviously does not know your environment and your experience.

Wow - "loon"? "Mental"? Appropriate words to a breeder following up on the welfare of animals they have sold? Really?

I hate this sentimental attitude to pets: "I luuuurve them so of course anything I will do will be the best for them". Animal welfare doesn't work that way.

YABU simply for paying £10 for a rat FFS! Why don't you catch some at the local railway station for free!

Also - maybe the woman was concerned that the rats could have harmed the kittens!

ArcheryAnnie you clearly don't know the context

Hmm well breeders tend to set out their expectations in their contracts. If you don't have a contract with this breeder or the contract doesn't state any terms then I would say YANBU to find her comments intrusive. Whether or not it's a good idea I don't know as I haven't dealt with rats before.

If you have a contract with the breeder and it sets out their expectations then YABU. I would expect you to have a contract though as most breeders do.

I've read the same thread as you, hiddenhome. If I don't know the context, then neither do you.

I didn't comment on whether in this case what the OP had done was right. What I was questioning was this (all too common) attitude of "I love them and have spent money on them so of course my decisions about them are the right ones". The OP did write a lot about how loving and caring she was towards her animals, and I doubt doubt that for a second. What I am saying is that this is utterly irrelevant as to whether she is in the right on this particular occasion or not.

And I do think the attitude towards the breeder on here is really, weirdly extreme.

my cat used to sunbathe in my neighbours garden my neighbour used to let her rabbit run free one day she realised he was there when the rabbit was out and went to shoo him away she was shocked see him sunbathing quite happily while the rabbit ate grass next to him he even rolled over when nudged they got along fine he defended the garden against other cats occasionally too it was "their" sanctuary when the rabbit passed away he didn't go back he popped in saw the hutch was gone and came away again

animals will get along despite what people expect

So you didn't have the kittens when you purchased the rats? Tbh I think the breeders behaviour is unprofessional but I can see her point if she had not realised that her rats were going to a home full of cats. She does still have a right to be interested in their welfare but she should have been a little bit more grown up about how she approached it.

You cannot prevent the predator prey responds by just loving them so much that they have to be good pets

BusitKate - I read about that at the weekend, and how it can modify (to a very slight extent) human behaviour as well - totally blew me away!

I breed rats.

Though less often than many breeders I know and even then, I still don't make a profit on my 9 price per rat kitten.

Tbh I would be concerned if I saw those pictures on fb, the animals really shouldn't be mixed like that or given opportunity to hurt eachother. A breeder imo does have a right to stay involved long after money is exchanged, especially as you likely knew she would be when you took them/added her to fb.

I am more laid back than most, I find homes in the weeks before mine leave. I meet with the adopters and they show me the cages they have bought and often I meet their resident rats if they have any. Most come along with their families to see my rats/the babies and pick which ones they want. After a few weeks and they've taken the babies home, I withdraw, I am always there at the end of the phone/email if they need me but the only requirement I ask is that they tell me if a disease/illness crops up or when the rats die so I can see whether this is something to alter in my lines.

Other than that I trust I made a good judgement call on these people after the weeks of contact and let them go about their lives until they perhaps want some more from us.

I have dogs and a cat, but they aren't allowed direct access to the rats except looking at them through the cage bars. Not even then when it comes to the babies, only the adult rats who know enough not to fear them.

the breeder does not give contracts. someone has already told her to invoke the claus in the contract that would allow her to take them back....she has had to admit she doesnt give them out.

I could just block her but i dont want to do that - i understand she wants to check on them but i post pictures all the time of them running around with me....

its not like i routinely leave them with the cats or dogs. i just had the rats out and on my shoulder - i went into the kitchen and the rescue kittens were laid on the top of their pen - i let tme meet and touch noses for a few seconds - it was cute so i took a bloody picture.
i posted it on fb.
world war 3 erupted.

i work in a field where i see animal cruelty on a very regular basis so yes, im pissed off.
the breeder has now posted my photo all over her own wall to garner opinion.
needless to say the torch and pitchfork mobs are out.

it it utterly utterly ridiculous.