Why I will never be a breeder... FEAR!

All my life I have wanted to raise something. Horses originally, first Arabians, then Clydesdales, then Miniatures. Then I wanted to breed dogs. Chinese Crested Dogs. Then I thought it would be awesome to raise bobbed tailed cats.

A part of me looks out at Brego and thinks, "If I were rich I would breed Gypsies." but I know that is a load of poo. With the animal over population in order to justify breeding any animals at all the breeding stock would have to be stupidly close to perfect and have so much genetic and health testing before I would breed it that there is no way aside from winning the Mega Millions Lottery that I could ever afford to breed and still be able to sleep at night without feeling guilty for breeding instead of rescuing.

Some times I get angry at all of the irresponsible twits out there who let their animals breed willy nilly (or who intentionally breed their crap animals) because if they would knock it off I could justify breeding without feeling guilty. But such is life.

When I get really annoyed thinking about it I just remind myself that even if I could breed the act of selling my "product" would just emotionally wreck me. I still worry about all of the cats and kittens I have placed over the years. I am haunted by concern for a horse I sold almost 16 years ago that I completely lost track of and whose buyers turned out to be coo coo.

Now, you know my breed of choice is that overly flashy hairball breed that sells for thousands of dollars, right? You would think breeding and selling those would be pretty safe because honestly with what they cost and being a rare breed folks who buy them are going to take care of them, right? RIGHT?

Think again.

On of my online friends just recently had to go repossess a horse she sold on co-ownership. She took a deposit and payments. Thankfully she has a SUPER contract, which allowed her to get him back. When ever she asked the buyer she was told that the horse was doing great, healthy as a horse, and they absolutely loved him like crazy. Unfortunately they don;t feel obligated to make their payments on him. Hm....

This is what the horse looked like when she sold him two and a half months before she went to get him back:



Isn't he lovely? all fit and glossy and full of spirit. This little guy is sweet as sugar and just adores people. He is a SUPER easy keeper and just thrives on a minimal amount of food (like almost ALL Gypsy Horses).

So, breeder/seller hears rumours and being RESPONSIBLE she does what it takes, at great expense of both time and money to herself, to find out for sure. When she finally lays eyes on her sweet boy just a short 2 1/2 months later she immediately got him out of there and THIS is what she brought home (picture modified ONLY to remove person who wished to be removed from photo):



TWO AND A HALF MONTHS!!!!!

THIS is why I could never breed and sell animals. These people seemed like a perfect home. And in less than three months they turned a fat sassy happy boy into a complete mess of malnourished tangles. How does a horse get that bad in less than three months? The fear of this happening to a life I brought in to this world stops my animal breeding dreams right in their tracks.

Thankfully his breeder is a wonderful and caring person. She planned ahead by having a very detailed contract that she was willing to enforce. She followed through by checking up on him, and she risked doing what ever it took to get him back. And now she is putting her all into getting him back to his previous healthy fat self 100%. Thankfully he was just neglected and not abused, and his sweet temperament is still intact, but if she'd not had that detailed contract it could have taken 6 months of legal crap to get him back. Can you imagine what could have happened in 6 months if he looked like this after 2 1/2?????

So yeah, this is why I will never be an animal breeder, no matter how badly I have always want to raise something. Unless I can keep it forever or eat it (lol) I just can't handle the fear of what could happen to it.