"I personally do not think it is irresponsible if you find decent homes for them and don't just let them breed incessantly. Not everyone wants a fully grown rescue cat, or can afford the fees that rescue centres charge."
Try telling that to the cat rescues who are seeing cats die for want of homes. Have you actually thought about what you're saying? Do you really think that it's acceptable to advocate and support backyard breeding of a species which are already so numerous in this country that hundreds of healthy members are being killed each month for want of homes and thousands more are feral, reproducing, spreading disease amongst their own and dying as a result having been thrown out by feckless humans?
Let me explain a few harsh truths:
- Rescues have kittens as well as full grown cats. Surely everyone knows that!
- If you can't afford approximately £50 which is what a rescue will charge for a NEUTERED OR SPAYED, FULLY VACCINATED, ASSESSED, WORMED AND FLEA TREATED CAT you cannot afford to own a kitten at all. The average cost to the general public of a cat spay alone is in excess of £50. Then you have the cost of vaccination, wormer, flea and tick treatment and it comes to a hell of a lot more that the cost of a rescue cat. That's before you start paying for his food and vet insurance and annual repeat vaccinations. Or are you saying that if you can't afford these things it's perfectly okay to buy/be given a kitten and NOT neuter/spay, vaccinate and flea and worm treat them and that it's okay not to be able to afford any vet treatment they may need over the course of their lifetimes?
As a rescuer who currently has two cats seeking homes I can tell you that the adoption fee only will only cover a fraction of what I've spent on them. They've had all the above and of course are insured and fed at my expense too. Cost to me so far on just one cat, whom I've had here for about a month, approximately £150.
I repeat... if you can't afford a £50 rescue adoption fee you can't afford to own a cat full stop.
- If you can't afford the cost of a rescue cat how the feck are you going to afford the cost of a caesarean if the unspayed kitten you buy becomes pregnant herself and is in difficulty in labour?
- How many people who breed these kittens because "they want to keep ONE/they want the kids to see kittens growing up in the house/their cat is pretty/they love kittens/want to make a fast buck" or whatever other god-awful reason homecheck new homes to ensure they are suitable? Sure, some will rehome to trusted friends, albeit that not being knowledgable on cats these backyard breeders often rehome to unsuitable friends, but what about those who advertise their kittens in a shop window or on the free ads and hand their kittens over to complete strangers? God only knows what might happen to those animals.
- How many of these backyard breeders are willing and able to take the kittens back if the owner cannot keep them.. even if that's in 10 years time, when the cat has an illness and needs expensive treatment? How many of these cats bred by backyard breeders like the OP are going to land up in the streets, feral, in rescue or at the vet to be put to sleep in years to come because the owner has no support and back-up and no-where to place them? Rescue is full in most areas, you can't just bowl up with a cat and expect them to take him in, it doesn't work like that.
I'm appalled at the number of posts I've seen on here by seemingly intelligent women who are involved in or who are advocating adding to the already enormous unwanted cat situation. Do people really think that the unwanted cats out there are okay because people like me and other rescuers have all these cats safe in their care so they need not worry about adding to the number of cats bred? Because if so I'd love to take you to a few vets (here even, in my very affluent area, never mind the inner cities) and let you watch the owners come in asking the vet to kill their cat because they can't or don't want to keep him any more. I'd show you where the RSPCA have done just that too because there's nowhere for unwanted cats to go.
I'd take you to watch the vets killing those cats too.