BENGAL CATS NEED RESCUING FROM THEIR BREEDER

I realize I am way too late for this article. If only I had my own computer. Here it is the end of August and Im just now reading this. I beleive I shared on here my expierience with two Bengal breeders. One had the cats in her basement in the dark. The kitten I bought never did get tame. The other one died a few weeks later from drinking stagnant water that the women insister the cats should have boiled water that she stored in old milk jugs. She refused to honor our contract, refused to take my calls, and when I called the inspector in my area she told me she had been called on her before. Well I was out my money in both cases. Both cats were bought on cantracts. The first cat eventually figured out how to rip the screen open and wanted to be outside. One day she just didnt come to eat and I never saw her aqain. I did buy another Bengal and that woman didnt honor the contract either. She was supposed to provide me with the cats papers upon proof of nuetering. Well I never saw those papers. Now I am involved with the Savannah cats. I have a kitten about 9 months old now. I also have the breeding rights as stated in the contract. But cat people dont breed to outside cats and I have no intention of starting a cattery in my little small cottage I live in. Now my cat is in her second heat. The breeder told me to contact him when she was in her second heat and we would see what we could work out with the breeding issue. Now hes telling me all his cats have kennel cough and its not a good time for breeding. Well so much for that idea and his stupid contract. Well we met a very nice lady who had 4 half bengal kittens. I went to her house and she sold me a very beautiful silver, black spotted kitten. With no contract. He is the sweetest little thing. Although Aurora hates him we are taking the introduction very slow. Im hoping to have him registered with TICA as an unknown.

Thank you from me too.

Fantastic comment, Finn, thanks a lot. It is really nice to get the story translated! For us English who refuse to learn another language..;)

Yes, it can happen anywhere and is, as you say, about one person, who lost the plot. And the tragedy of 100 suffering cats and 82 who lost their lives - shocking.

(continued)

The police report was filed by another breeder, Louise D., who sensed something had gone terribly wrong. On cat site http://kattegalleri.dk/html/for_messageDetail.asp?MSG_ID=70367 she tells about what the house looked like, when she arrived there with the police. Very graphic, but if you saw the video clip, you'll know. She closes her message by saying,

"I urge you not to start a lynching campain against her. What has happened is hideous, terrible, repulsive and a lot more. But things have clearly slipped out of her hands completely and having the cat world throwing itself on her will not help the cats in any way. Believe me - others will make sure she is held responsible for what she has done. I'll lend my name to saying she is mentally disordered and seriously needs help. But she herself does not realize."

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The animal welfare organization Dyrenes Beskyttelse seized 100 cats in all and placed them at their shelter in Brande. All of them had diarrhea and other disease like inflammation of the eyes, respiratory illnesses etc. It was suspected some had had their lungs damaged from inhaling ammonia. Sadly most of them did not recover - many because their intestines were so damaged they could not gain weight.

After a couple of months only 17 cats had survived and put up for adoption. Having been in the news they of course all found new good homes right away. One cat was returned to the owner as part of an agreement. This means that 82 Bengal cats could not survive and had to be put down. I'll write the number again, so you can think about it for a moment - 82

(Source Dyrenes Beskyttelse magazine, June 2010 issue).

To me this is a typical story of how bad things can go, when a person responsible for living creatures looses control of his or her life. We've seen it with animal hoarders, we've seen it with farmers, with horse breeders and - with cat breeders. It can happen anywhere and the only thing we can do is to keep our eyes open. Once things gets as far as in this case, the chance of the animals surviving is real low.

OK - I'm back with some more facts about this tragic case. I want to say that I do not know the breeder or any of the other persons involved. I can only describe the case as I've heard it from the press and other public sources.

First a translation of the article from the website of Danish newspaper 'Midtjyllands Avis', which I mentioned earlier. It goes

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100 cats living in their own feces

Neglect

Having received a report about animal cruelty, the police from Silkeborg and a veterinary officer turned out on Tuesday morning to a small farm on Høgholmsvej near Voel.

Here they found nearly 100 cats left to themselves.

All cats were of the 'Bengal' breed and were locked up in a cowhouse and in the uninhabited farmhouse, where they walked around in their own feces with no access to fresh air.

- The owner of the cats is likely to be fined for violating the law on animal cruelty. The veterinarian found that the animals were well fed with access to food and water. The transgression is their lack of opportunity to keep themselves clean and to move around, says Deputy Police Commissioner Jørgen Jensen from Silkeborg Police.

The cats are to be moved

The owner of the cats does not live on the farm, but she was there when police and veterinarian paid a visit to check. Jørgen Jensen will not state what warnings or injunctions the owner has received from the police.

- There is an ongoing police investigation about the case and we await a final report from the veterinary authorities, says Jørgen Jensen.

For many years the cat owner has been breeding Bengal cats. However, when speaking to mja.dk she denies being a cat breeder anymore. She will not disclose how many cats are on the premises.

- But all cats will be moved somewhere else, says the cat owner, who does not want to make any further comments.

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The linked TV-news story from Danish TV2/Region Østjylland basicly tells the same story. It features intervies with Bente Eriksen, who is heading the local branch of Dyrenes Beskyttelse, the main animal welfare organization in Denmark. Also owner of the house Anne Lis Toft, who let the house to the breeder back in April 2008. It was in good condition back then, now it's ruined. Finally we see Morten Rostock, assessor of the mortgage loan company. He has never smelled anything like this before and has to go outside "
for some fresh air"...

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(to be continued)

Thanks Finn for clearing this up. It looks like the anonymous author has a personal thing going on with the breeder concerned.

And thanks Ruth for your support.

Your angry comment about us sitting about bitching shows what an ignorant person you are.

Don't you know that cases like this are amongst the abuse of animals many of us spend hours on daily ?

What do YOU do ?

As Finn says, this happened back in January, the cats are already rescued, so stop wasting our time. You may have nothing better to do, but we have.

This is what WE do EVERY day in our own time,we fight ALL kinds of abuse and we STILL make time to educate about the unecessary pre meditated amputation of cats toe ends called declawing, which is just as much abuse as any other.

Hi Michael. First of all, for those wishing to adopt one of the few surviving Bengal cats, I can tell that the animal shelter in Brande has already found good new homes for all of them. So they actually don't need rescuing anymore.

Then I can confirm that this incident has taken place, although not exactly 'breaking news' anymore, as it was back in January. Also it has been given a lot of coverage in Danish media, so I don't understand why the submitter prefers to be anonymous. Maybe some personal reasons, I don't know?

The newspaper article accompanying the disgusting pictures is available at .

From what I've heard, this seems to be a story very similar to other stories about cat hoarders. Only in this case it was not a person collecting feral cats hoping to save them, but a once highly respected breeder, who for unknown reasons lost grip of her life. This tragic story does in NO way reflect the conditions responsible breeders offer their cats.

I have to go to work now, but I'll get back later today with a translation of the news clips and related updates.

I decided to publish this submission despite finding it disturbing for two reasons.

First if this is true the breeder is appalling. Secondly, is it true and is this a breeder? The first link points to photographs, almost no text and a foreign language that Google can't translate properly.

Not sure about this. Can the author give us some clues? Being anonymous is understandable but adds to the mystery and uncertainty.