A question about breeders and pet shops...

So I was searching the web the other night for info on some TNR issues in our area. Randomely I came across a website for some cat-fancy group that had a section on local legislation. They seemed to believe (but they didn't back it up with any explination) that the IDA (In Defense of Animals) was evil because they disapproved of animals being sold in petshops.

Now, it made me wonder. Excepting my first kitty who I got when I was 5, I have always understood that pet shops are not a good place to get kitties. I still imagine that if you get a cat at a pet shop you do not know if you are supporting a good breeder or a bad one, since you are not meeting them/seeing their house/etc.

I still wanted to ask though, does anyone know any good breeders who sell through a pet store? Is it considered a good/bad practice?

Purely curious.

I don't think any good breeder would sell trough a pet store. Because obviously the good breeder would like to meet the new owners of the cat before deciding to sell the cat or not. Pet stores would sell the kitten to anyone with money, so no breeder that cares about the kitties would take them to a pet store. But I don't think most kitties in pet store actually come from breeders. They come from people who didn't spay their mixed breed cats. The pet stores don't even pay these people, so, if you buy a kitten there, you are not supporting the breeder but a petstore itself.

At my local Pet store they sell dogs from breeders but all the cats and kittens are shelter animals

I bought Simba at a pet store. He is pedigreed with papers. I also met the Bengal breeder who comes to the shop 5 days out of the week to check on the kittens. When I saw Simba's family tree, I saw that he came from good and well known lines. The petshop I bought Simba from, is in a secluded very exclusive area, where usually only the very rich, (except me) shop. They also had a Sphinx kitten for sale, at the same time I bought Simba and it was the first time I ever saw a Sphinx in person. All of the puppies I saw in there were also pedigreed, as well. So, I guess some petshops are better than others. Although on the whole, I do agree that most petshops do support puppy and kitten mills.

That's pretty much what I suspected. I know some people walk away from pet stores with expensive "Patio Cats". I imagine that there are a few stores like HopeHackers, but most are pretty bad (excepting of course the ones that do rescue groups).

We have sold through pet shops in the past, the pet shop we have sold through is very picky with who they place their kittens with. Of course every country has their fair share of bad petshops, but the majority of NZ petshops is good-

I personally don't understand why breeders wanna sell their kittens to a pet shop, not knowing who buys them. I wanna meet the people who wanna buy my kittens. I wanna learn to know them and decide for myself if I think he/she can offer my kitten/kittens a good home.

Here in Sweden it's illegal to sell puppies and kittens at pet stores I just hope they will illegalize selling rodents and birds at pet shops to.