110 Maine Coon kittens and cats rescued from a breeder in Virginia, USA

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NEWS AND COMMENT: this is not hot off the press but the numbers are astonishing. This was a very large operation by an American Maine Coon cat breeder. I would doubt that there are many if any as big in the US. At the time of the cats' rescue from this breeder there were 110 kittens and cats. They were all rescued with the assistance of a cat rescue organisation called Cat's Cradle in partnership with the Humane Society of the United States.

Believed to be Executive Director Sherri Heishman of Cat's Cradle with one of the cats
Believed to be Executive Director Sherri Heishman of Cat's Cradle with one of the cats. Image: Cat's Cradle (believed). 

Before the breeding facility was closed down they had received 50 Animal Welfare Act violations in just 12 months. The violations included a failure to provide veterinary care and adequate housing. 

We don't have the name of the breeder which I think is unfortunate because it would be nice to know in case they restart! I don't know whether anything has been done to prevent them restarting but I hope it has. They could restart under a different name and create the same kind of problems all over again.

The report is that all the cats were underweight and some suffered from upper respiratory tract infections. They had lived all their lives in cages but it appears that they were socialised.

All 110 Maine Coon kittens and cats were examined by the Humane Society's veterinarian with the assistance of Cats Cradle. Each cat's medical status was logged.

The cats have been rehomed and applications were made through Cat's Cradle which conducted a rigorous screening process.

The cats and kittens spent time with foster carers and to provide a quarantine period before they were rehomed.

Comment: the story is remarkable, as mentioned, for the great number of Maine Coon cats. It sheds some light on the operation of Maine Coon cat breeders in America. Who would have thought that this one breeder had 110 cats on her or his property?

Normally cat breeders are hobby breeders with perhaps a few foundation cats and a couple of litters of kittens to sell. But this was cat breeding on an industrial scale.

When you think that each kitten might be valued at up to $5000, and if there were up to a hundred kittens (I don't how many there were) the assets of this breeder would amount to $500,000. Big business. And it tells us to that one has to be careful when you buy purebred cats online.

Really to be entirely safe you need to visit the breeder and in this instance if somebody had wanted to buy one of the kittens and visited they would have seen the conditions under which they were being bred and would not have purchased.

Location: Virginia, USA

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