Breeder Banned Because Bengal Cats Where Too Noisy When Mating

Bengal cat; copyright Helmi Flick. The photo is here for illustrative purposes only. This cat has no connection with the story.

This is the first case I have read about in which a cat breeder has been banned by court order from breeding cats. It was not the act of breeding cats which resulted in the ban, it was the noise they created in the place where the breeder lived. The place is significant because if she had lived in a detached house 400 yards from the nearest neighbour she would not have ended up in court.

The neighbours in effect sued in the tort of nuisance and the nuisance was excessive noise (plus the smell of urine). The legal action was commenced under the council’s animal management bylaw.

The place is Auckland, NZ. The breeder is Tatjana Young and she has been breeding Bengal cats since 2012. The neighbours complained to the Auckland Council (the local authority).

Neighbours claimed that the noise was ‘extremely piercing’ and sounded ‘ like a child being hurt’. In addition there was a smell of urine.

The judge, Anna Johns, said that Young was a decent breeder, passionate about her work but that she had created a nuisance which had been going on for a considerable time.

The noise had disrupted sleep. Some neighbours had moved out because of the noise.

“The noise is extremely loud and piercing and it was occurring during night hours way above any permissible level.” (Judge Johns)

The RSPCA agreed that the cats were well care for. There was no issue on that count; it was all to do with noise during mating.

The judge banned Young from breeding cats on her property and fined her $2,000. She was ordered to pay court costs of $1,000.

All the male cats and the kittens were ordered to be removed from her property.

Comment: this is an interesting case because it implies, and may set a precentent in New Zealand, that noise from breeding cats can amount to a nuisance if the breeding facility is near enough to neighbouring residents. It is the first case of this kind that I have encountered. There is a reverse case: a gun range causing such noise that it was a nuisance to a cat rescue organisation.

Source: https://www.radionz.co.nz/news

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Comments

Breeder Banned Because Bengal Cats Where Too Noisy When Mating — 5 Comments

M.E. King on December 31, 2017 at 5:49 pm said:
I’m going to guess the noise was added as icing and this had more to do with the smell complaints.
I do not understand the order to remove some of the cats unless she violated an ordinance that restricted the number of cats.
As someone who has spent 25 years dealing with neighbors ( relatives ) and their unending parade of loose vicious dogs who often bark 24/7 we informed them last summer that they were now being recorded with the intent to sue. At some point neighbors can overreach the tolerance line of normal living to the extent that someone says no more.
Personally I don’t think anyone should be breeding bengals.
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- Michael Broad on December 31, 2017 at 6:49 pm said:
  You could be right about the smell, ME. What about the dogs? You should be able to do something about those. There are some options. You can sue in nuisance which is a tort (a civil wrong). This is the worst option. Or the local authority may be able to assist you. There is a third possibility if your property is freehold. There may be a covenant (unlikely) in the title deeds which prevents excessive noise (this would be hard to enforce anyway). If you are living in a leasehold property then certainly the lease will allow one leaseholder to enforce the terms against against another either directly or via the freeholder (the best option but the property must be leasehold).
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  - M.E. King on December 31, 2017 at 8:33 pm said:
    Michael the dogs were shut up when the threat of actual legal action was put on the table.
    It’s important to understand unless this breeder lives in a hive of maniacs who try to micromanage everyone around them this woman was probably approached numerous times and probably got the same crap we did. It’s my home I’ll do what I want.
    If you want to breed this type of cat she should have realized she did not live where it was appropriate and moved or ceased long before it reached this level. I suspect the real issue is she is lousy inconsiderate neighbor who is now crying foul and accusing someone of being a cat hater when she set the wheels in motion by refusing to cease activities that infringed beyond reason on neighbors. Having sued the vet who killed Kitten I can tell you there is little to NO satisfaction in the act. It puts the burden fully on those complaining to prove they have been wronged.
    There are a plethora of cheap web based cameras on the market at low prices that people living in disarray because of a neighbors unreasonable behavior can use most of them are legal if you live in a one party consent state.
    According to one piece the complaints have been ongoing for 4 years.
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- kitty on January 2, 2018 at 5:32 pm said:
  I don’t understand why they removed the cats either. These are her cats, and they have a home. Even one views cats as property, you cannot take someone else’s property, it’s theft, and Bengals are expensive. The more appropriate way to handle the situation would be an order to either neuter the cats or move, and give some reasonable time e.g. a month or two to do so, and fine her for every week after say one month if she doesn’t correct the situation.
  In general, I don’t think an apartment is an appropriate place for a cattery. If I were a landlord, I’d only allow neutered pets. I’d not want neighbors with spraying cats either, but taking somebody’s cats is an overreach.
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Michele Massa on December 30, 2017 at 6:19 pm said:
Why do they have the authority to “remove” the male cats and kittens over a noise violation, they didn’t bite anyone? And take them where? I am afraid to even guess. This is total overreach. Is it a dictatorship or cat haters there? How about she neuters the male cats and stops breeding? I smell cat haters here. Before they just “removed” my cats they would have to totally knock me out and make me unconscious because I would not just let these bastards do this without me trying to f%%k them up bad. We all know damn well what these bastards did to them for just being cats. And I would make sure every news station within 1000 miles knew. This is horrible.
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