My Lola is the same way...double coat, slate nose, completely solid blue...but green gold eyes. If they had told me she was a Russian Blue, I wouldn't have believed them (since my whole understanding of purebreds is basically that being an offical purebred comes from parentage and certification, not looks or traits) but I would have understood if we had sort of marketed her as such. Personally, I will never be owned by a cat who is not a rescue, but that's me. I am attracted to the breed DS/M/LH, I think they are lovely, wonderful kitties.
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Who are we kidding - rescues listing DSH's under breeds
- Thread starter eatrawfish
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Perhaps I'm not understanding where you are coming from...but most rescues charge more than shelters. Most shelters hold a cat for a particuliar time and then euthanize them. Most rescues will hold a cat until it is adopted..which could take months/years...so the expenses of housing,feeding, advertizing etc. falls to the rescue. I don't see anything wrong with charging $200 for a cat that is UTD on shots and neutered/spayed..especially since the fee goes to rescue other cats that awaiting death in shelters. The rescue I volunteer with charges $150 per cat and that doesn't even cover the vet bills. We charge the same fee for a moggie or a purebred mix.
Oftentimes, it isn't even the rescue who mislabels a cat....it will be it's previous owner at the time they drop it off. Even the vets that we work with will call a cat a siamese mix instead of a moggie..so again, I don't see the false advertizing. I see a community that is trying to place cats....and labelling them the way they see them.
I would love for there to come a time when a moggie is just as "valued" as a purebred look-alike...but currently that isn't the case.
Katie
But ... but ... when someone misrepresents a DSH as a "breed mix", isn't that just perpetuating the idea that a DSH isn't as valued as a pedigeed cat? IMO, it is in blatant disregard of the cat's intrinsic value as a potential companion ... and most certainly allows us to think that just because a cat might be a breed mix, it is somehow better than a mere DSH of unknown breed/heritage.
I must say that I have learned quite a lot from participating in this thread, but I think it is time now for me to bow out. I am becoming frustrated and since my thoughts on this topic are well documented, I really don't feel able to add anything more at this time.
(from www.dictionary.com)
Really, it's a matter of semantics. It's still open to interpretation, but in my personal opinion, to call an animal a "mix" is to imply that you have absolute concrete knowledge that there is an ancestor of a certain breed among his or her forebears. And of course, unless you know his genealogy that's just impossible. Call it a lookalike, call it a wannabe, but again unless you know, calling it a "mix" is inaccurate at best. This kitty is being called a Siamese mix. I find it doubtful that she has Siamese anywhere in her ancestry. She does have a well expressed white spotting gene :-) and what might be called a Turkish Van pattern just so there is something to compare it to as it is even MORE doubtful of course that there's any Van in her background.
It is a shelter, not a rescue . What I am saying is that purposely labeling a moggy as a purebred anything just so you can add $100 to the adoption fee is absurd.
I see nothing wrong with charging that much either as $200 in some places would buy one neuter and some food (and the price for unspeutered animals was an extra $100, btw), but the point i was trying to make was that their moggies were $100, and their "purebreds" who bore absolutely no resemblance to the breeds they were listed as were $200.
They should label them mixes at most (as they were mostly strays, not abandons to begin with) , but of the 30 cats this shelter had, they'd labelled all but 3 or 4 as purebreds (not mixes, but purebreds). Some of their "purebred siamese" had points and yellow eyes, every tailless cat was immediately a "purebred manx" or "purebred american bobtail", and they had a bunch of "purebred persians", most of which looked like they were just longhaired moggies. They even had a litter of "purebred persian kittens" that were simply longhaired moggies, and they admitted that those were found abandoned somewhere.
Nope...that is recognizing that SOCIETY at large views purebred mixes as intrinsically more valuable...I don't know why. Perhaps it has to do with owning something you can't find in every barn, on every street or for free. Every rescue will tell you how much easier to place any cat that "looks" purebred over your average DSH or DLH. We are working on that by spaying/neutering to bring the DSH and DLH into more reasonable numbers....but right now, cats lives are on the line. So, call me a hypocrite...I'd rather see more cats live under a wrong label then have more die calling them all DSH.
Katie
Have you ever asked why they charge a different fee for what they believe are purebreds over moggies? Have you asked them what the extra $100 goes towards??? I think a lot of assumptions are made without asking the organization directly. I'd be interested in reading their response. BTW..there are no kill rescue shelters...they are different from kill shelters.
Katie
In your example....the group probably looked at the markings and thought..well, that may be interesting to someone who likes siamese cats...notice, they did say DSH mix. I'm not saying they are right in putting siamese in the title...I don't see it either...but bless them if it works to get this kitten into a home. Petfinder isn't an exact science..it is a guess at best and thank goodness it exists...so many more animals are living because people are able to do a search on the characteristics they like. But the problem arises in that the labelling is so narrow...something either is a purebred or a mix or a moggie. As stated before...I don't think it is intentionally to misrespresent a cat as to give it a better chance. Unfortunately a siamese mix who is a biter has a better chance than it's moggie cousin who is a lap cat. Gosh, I wish that wasn't the case...and I live for the day when moggies have equal standings (as cats) as their purebred cousins.
Katie
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I find it very interesting what I have learned here. I will continue to act in a way which I find comfortable.
i don't know where they're getting that - she doesn't even show points or a mask! my sister has a moggy, with tabby points & mask... looks sort of like a lynx point siamese, the same way Mouse look sort of like a russian blue. but this kitty doesn't look at all siamese to me.
Some may notice that some posts have beed edited or removed. This was done because the posts in question were very much off topic from the question asked.
We believe that both sides of this argument have been expressed very well and very clearly. At this point it seems further posts would only make for a circular discussion.
Thank you everyone for expressing yourselves clearly and while attacking the arguments, not attacking the person behind the argument.
We believe that both sides of this argument have been expressed very well and very clearly. At this point it seems further posts would only make for a circular discussion.
Thank you everyone for expressing yourselves clearly and while attacking the arguments, not attacking the person behind the argument.
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