"Dodgy" adoption

[newnamenewnamenewname]

I've been looking into adopting a cat through a rescue centre. I wouldn't adopt or buy from a private individual other than a registered breeder but a friend sent me a link to a private ad yesterday for a local pedigree cat who was a bit of a "local celeb" last year that needs rehoming. The cat did a runner a couple of days after being rehomed and was missing for a month. He even made the national press. Now a few months later, his adoptive family (a retired couple) are "heartbreakingly" having to give him up as he is bullying their other cats.

Chatting with DS this afternoon, I asked him if he remembered the story. He googled it and along with the story and the current ad, up popped another ad that appears to be from the same couple from a month ago. It's for a different (adult) cat - different colour, different age, different name - but it is the same breed and the same "sob story". They are having to let him go because he doesn't get on with their other cats. And when I say "let him go", I mean sell him for several hundred pounds (ditto the current cat that is up for "adoption").

There is something else bothering me now I've reread the original news story. When the cat went missing the owner said that they thought someone might have taken him in "thinking he was neglected" because his fur was matted when they adopted him and they didn't want to clip his fur until he had settled in.

There is definitely something fishy going on. But what?

That's as dodgy as fuck. That's not rehoming. If you're paying money like that (and not to a charity) you're just funding either back street breeding or even theft of animals. Whatever it is - it's not rescue. They need exposing somehow so others don't fall for their story.

Report it to the rspca

I've dug a little deeper and found some more ads. The 2 year old cat that was up for rehoming last month was being advertised as a stud the month before that. A year before that they were selling another 2 year old unneturered male with a similar sob story, "our other boys are bullying him".

And lo and behold, there are ads for "unregistered" pedigree kittens and crossbreed kittens too. So it looks like they are backyard breeders. Unlike the kittens, the 3 adult males all come with registration documents. Assuming the papers are genuine, I guess they buy them, breed from them, then sell them on with a sob story once they are done with them.

The cats in the photos look a little bit dishevelled but not seriously neglected They are a shaggy breed. They just look a bit unbrushed IYSWIM. Although the story about the missing cat's matted fur is concerning.

I will report my concerns but exploitative breeding isn't illegal so I am not sure there is much the RSPCA can do unless the cats are in a really bad state.

If I understand correctly, it's a private seller, not pretending to be a rescue? In that case it's not "adoption". Just one of the many, many, many irresponsible people breeding their cats and selling them...