Complaint Review: Attractivecats in Londonderry NH - Nationwide

 I have stumbled upon this report and wanted to put my 2 cents into it. My husband and I have bought 3 cats total from Max and Luba. Here is the thing, when you buy cats as such you must familiarize yourself with the breed. All 3 of our cats did have colds which the vets explained this is VERY common . These people have spent millions raising these cats and getting proper equiptment. We did spend alot of money on vets bills but this was expected with such a breed. First off, Bengals have really sensitive stomachs. The first years of our oldest cats life consisted of him pooping all over the place. No, he did not have parasites or anything such. We tested him for everything!! When we got our 3rd cat from them our second was hit by a car. We were heart broken. They were so understanding and gave us a discount. I'm not sure about the research that was done but bengals can cost up to 2000$! So I just wanted to say, I am extremely happy with my cats that were purchased from this cattery. If you want these types of cats you must do your research first, they are not cheap!

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Hello,

We have been breeding cats for about 10 years and have many hundreds of happy customers with no such reports as this.  We love animals and cats especially and have been raising them our whole life and tried our best to always do the right thing for our animals and for their caretakers.  We also raise ducks and geese who have a 1/2 acre pond on our property in addition to the cats we have raised.  We do not slaughter them, but do get eggs from them.  Our point is that we love animals and put in good infrastructure, and a home play environment that is holistic and caring.

The report filed here on the internet here by Sharon Itzsky is mostly non factual, inaccurate in its details, misleading, and quite possibly an illegal defamation that our legal consul and certain court officials have advised could be used in a lawsuit of damages against this person.  She filed a similar report with a request for thousands of dollars to be paid to her in a court case this past spring which was dismissed that determined that there were no grounds for her grievance --- as the judge rulled against her charges made about this situation.

We certainly wish the best for Sharon Itzsky and her Bengal cat, and I assure you, we did everything within reason to solve any issues for this person, Sharon Itsky who filed this report as you will see in the facts below and as we stated in the court case she brought against us that was dismissed and found that Sharon Itsky was wrongful in her accusations.

We would rather not file defamation charges against Sharon --- however --- unless she continues with threats and the spreading false information that are not factual.  We do respect her right to free speech and understand that she feels she has been wronged in this situation.  As we have told her, we regret any situation that caused her stress and was stressful to the cat and we still want her and all of our customers to have good experience with their new pet friends.

We went into cat breeding to make people happy as we love animals. We have won over 50 top cat show prizes with our Bengal and Maine Coon cats and we are specialists in feline behavior ---we  have been past members of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and we are certified breeders with The International Cat Association or TICA as well as past members of Cat Fancy Association and other related feline organizations that focus on professional cat breeding and husbandry.

For us, breeding cats  has been mostly a hobby and has not been a "for-profit" business as our 10 years of filed IRS tax reports show due to the overhead costs of caring for, feeding, pay for help, as well as building a dedicated 1000 square feet of play-land infrastructure in addition to our 2000 square foot home with additional cat areas where our cats play and roam under foot of our family and friends.  

From our perspective and as per the court case ruled against Sharon's accusations, here is the factual information of this situation that refute information of her report filed here:

1.) We do not knowingly sell sick cats and Sharon neglected in this filed report to show that we had taken the cat she selected to the vet for a health inspection only a few days before she came to pick up the cat and that vet check includes a 4 way vaccine and a poop test to test for parasites.  Our veterinarian is someone we have worked with for almost 10 years and he has a reputation as being one of the best in the State of New Hampshire.  We provided this Health certificate to Sharon on the day she picked up the cat.  The vet examined the cat completely and found no parasites in this cat!

2.) Sharon's contract agreement (we have a copy of her contract) does not state as Sharon reports ---"they will take back a cat only in exchange of another one , even if one isn't available for 3 yr:  

If there is a health issue with the cat, we need to get the cat back to confirm (protect other cats etc.) and bring to our vet who did the health inspection. We will take back the cat immediately and if we have a cat that is a suitable replacement and the customer agrees this cat is suitable then we will replace it that day... if the cat is not suitable and we do not have one the customer wants, we ill need to breed for the specific kind the customer wants and it takes a 2-3 months for a pregnancy to provide a litter and the about another 12-16 weeks more for the kitten to be mature enough to be homed.  So we guarantee an acceptable replacement either immediately if we have one or we will breed for one within the time it takes.

Our contract agreement that Sharon has - is modeled with many other TICA registered breeders --- it states:

This cat/kitten is guaranteed to be of sound health upon arrival. It is guaranteed for a period of 72 hours from the time of purchase (arrival), if vet-checked within that time. It is recommended that the new cat/kitten be kept in a separate area from existing pets during this time. If it is found to be medically deficient with a non-treatable or life threatening problem, it must be reported to the Seller immediately. Upon its return, it will be replaced with another cat/kitten of equal value when a litter is available to provide an appropriate pet. If no replacement is available initially, the Seller will have up to 9 months to furnish a satisfactory replacement but will make best effort to replace the kitten from the next breeding litter of available cats. Purchaser must also have any findings of a health problem documented by a board-certified veterinarian and must present Seller with this documentation.

Note:  we also require that the cat is kept away from any other pets for this period and longer if possible so that any health issues of the existing pet will not be transferred to the kitten and so the kitten is not stressed with an immediate introduction of an other pet it does not know.  Kittens are still developing an immune system and are susceptible to parasites, biological or viral issues an adult cat might have but the adult cat may not show symptoms and its mature immune system may suppress symptoms. This is a common procedure wording in many cat breeder contracts (in fact our contract terms were modeled after several other Bengal Breeder contracts who breed here in New England)  Our contract follows TICA guidelines to protect the cat  as well as the breeder legally from folks who expose their new kitten to other cats to soon.

btw Sharon refused to deliver to us the vet reports of health issues as per our request even as she took us to court which our lawyer points out is impeding the discover process and is likely illegal... 

Sharon did report to us after about a week that her cat was not well and that she was worried that her existing pet could also have something.  We told her to bring the cat back asap, we would quarantine it  and we would replace it to her with a suitable one of her choice or breed another kitten for her that would fit her expectations.  She did not do so and we followed up with her about a week later about the situation to ask her again to bring the kitten back so we could find out what is going on with our vet who had issues a health inspection that cleared the cat of any illness and parasites.

It also came out in the court case that Sharon was asking for us to pay money for treatment of her other existing adult cat and as the judge determined this implies that she had put the kitten with her existing pet contrary to what is required for a new pet owner to do in the agreement.... It is entirely possible that her existing cat had some virus that was suppressed and was spread to the kitten and the exposure + the stress of the new kitten being exposed physically to that stranger cat may have precipitated additional stress problems impacting the kittens immune system.   We asked Sharon multiple times to bring the kitten back to us so we could insure its health and not create a burden on her, but she refuse the agreed upon solution.

3.)  (from Sharon’s report here) False advertisement : $250-750 in paper, but told me mine would be $850.  We showed Sharon kittens and cats in the $250- 750 price tag, but after spending 4.5 hours looking at cats she wanted to get a special silver exotic Bengal which was bred from our Champion Line Silver Exotic Bengals which is a premium priced cat... The parents of that cat cost us over $4500. so hence the higher price for this kitten... Sharon certainly could have chosen one of the lower cost cats or bought a Bengal from another breeder.  She played with this cat for several hours and the cat she chose was still a bit young, was not quite ready to go home and had not gotten a vet checkup and health inspection which we told her we needed to do.  She put down a deposit of $200 which was refundable if she changed her mind and we told her we would contact her in a couple of weeks after the cat was vet checked and mature enough to go home with her which we did.

Sharon had several weeks to change her mind and get a refund on the kitten... which would have been no problem as other folks were interested in getting that kitten too... it is interesting to know that this kitten that Sharon took had 3 litter mate siblings which went to other homes and there were no health issues with any of them.  And the cat left our home with Sharon healthy as far as we know... we certainly do not want people to have a problem and we have placed hundreds of cats over the past 10  years to good people who absolutely love them.  Certainly we have run into a few problems with cats not being right for certain folks in terms of their personalities etc. over 10 years and  we always did what we could to insure all was well.  We certainly did not want Sharon to have a bad experience which is why we asked her to bring the cat back.

4.) RE: Also-They tried to sell me a cat that someone else brought back ,and a mutt cat for $500.  here's the scenario --- Our contract asks that if folks cannot keep their cat for some reason that they make arrangements with us to return the cat to us instead of putting in a bad shelter.  We do not want our cat to wind up in a cat shelter where they are kept in cages etc.  Our cats roam freely and get a lot of love.  When Sharon came we showed her this cat ---  that was returned as the people who owned it had to move to another area and could not find an apartment in their price range that would allow them to keep two cats.  They were in tears to let that cat go and it was a wonderful cat that we found a good home for.  It was not a mutt cat... we have been breeding for 10 years a mix of Bengals and Maine Coons along with about 15 other US breeders to develop a new breed of cats... this breed is slowly working itself to TICA recognition and they are wonderful cats with personality traits of both Maine Coons and Bengals.  The mother of that cat was a champion Maine Coon and the Father was a champion Bengal.  We have placed about 30 of these types of cats and people love them.  BTW Sharon attacked us about this situation at the court trial and the judge recognized that this was actually a good thing that we do to help find the best homes for our cats by having the cats returned to us if there going to be homeless.

5.) RE: Sharon;'s statement ---  the cattery smelled, eye issues on cats...

Of course the cattery smelled like cats --- not strongly but we recognize the smell is there... we have small colony of breeding cats in a space of about 3000 square feet.. The litter boxes are cleaned daily, we sue special good quality litters and we use special house friendly HEPA filters that help insure clean air... we have 4 of these HEPA filters that are sized for the entire house but there is always some smell of cats... this is true for all multi cat house holds in certain areas of the house to some extent and certainly for all breeders.  ...as far as eye issues go, we certainly are conscious of common cat symptoms and just like humans occasionally get a cold etc. a cat will catch a virus or find something bacterial... the world's cat population and for that matter humans live in the midst of world rampant with virus etc. most of which are a nuisance and not always life threatening... there is no such thing a bacteria or virus free world (except in certain medical rooms where even then it is hard to prevent certain organisms... the biggest problem is people who bring virus or bacteria to our cattery and then pet the cats... We have bottles of hand and face sanitizers that we require all people who visit us to use and that helps us minimize issues but certainly some folks bring in pathogens on their clothing... we use best practices recommended by catteries to avoid issues and certainly if you talk to any vet they will tell that for any pet e.g. dogs or cats etc. that sometimes their eyes will tear up due to common situations of our life on this planet... we do minimize the issue via cleaning etc. and one of our vets visits our home on regular basis to help us streamline any issues to address them professionally.

6.) RE: Sharon’s statement --- "They were afraid I would euthanize mine , so Luba said she would give me back $800, but then she re-negged- thank God, for not humane to put him back in that environment."

Over the following weeks before the trial, Sharon was threatening us and the cat that us she was going to have the cat put down (killed- euthanized) because it had a parasite and we asked her again to return the cat or treat as per the contract she signed.

Our contract states:

If this cat/kitten is found to be neglected or mistreated, Purchaser will surrender said cat/ kitten to Seller unconditionally.  The owner agrees that the cat is not to be declawed at any time in its life.

Both our vet and our legal consul contend that to euthanize a kitten if  it has a parasite or the types of things Sharon and her vet claim that those situations are not uncommon and were treatable with common medications and that to kill the kitten was a form of mistreatment.   

We told Sharon we would refund her money and to bring the cat back and it still brings me almost to tears to think of her idea of killing this champion quality loving kitten and not allowing us to treat it properly via our vet who by the way works with many other of the top cat and dog breeders in the State of NH. 

7.) RE: Sharon’s statement --- Now I know why- contagious sick cats is what Attractive cats sells( do they feed raw meat, bad well water, or is their geese pond infected too?)regarding neglect...

- we do not feed raw meat... we feed premium cat foods from Royal Canin that our optimized for our cat breeds... there is a special diet for Maine Coons and a special diet for Bengals and a special diet for nursing Mothers and a special diet for baby kittens and a special diet for older kittens

- our well has been inspected 5 times over the past 10 years... the inspection is not only for the cats but it is the water we humans and my family drinks ... we use Policy Well company in Salem NH and they have determined our water is not only safe but is quite healthy and good tasting... we do use a water softener for our water as it doe contain lots of minerals, but we test for parasites and the test results are negative for parasites... this was brought out in the court case

-Our geese are very healthy --- One of the Geese named Gertrude is now over 11 yeas old and still thriving.  

8. ) RE: Sharon’s statement --- Too sick to neuter so can't get my papers from breeder yet to see how feral this Bengal is

Totally false... even at the court case where she attacked us on this area and other out of normal issues, we told Sharon we would insure she would get the papers and we processed them the day of her request and reported the cat had been neutered as per our agreement___ it takes about 4-6 weeks for TICA to turn the papers around and we processed the papers and confirmed that Sharon was sent her TICA pedigree paperwork applications and that she can gain access to TICA ancestor records to trace the kitten to many generation of ancestors at her option.

BTW-- what Sharon also did not express here in this report is that she asked the court to give her the cat for free and was looking for about $3000 to pay such things as cat food bills and her other pet's routine vet checkups and other such vet bills... and we went through the key parts of the contract completely about the health guarantees etc.  If she had returned the cat as per the agreement she signed --- then we would have taken good care of the kitten, and found it a good home; if there was a health issue then we would have treated it through our excellent vet services... Instead it appears that Sharon's agenda was to do things on her own without regard to doing the rightful thing she agreed to do and best thing for the cat, herself and to allow us to solve the issue. 

Bottom line.... we wish Sharon all the best and did our best to remedy her issues and make this right with her, but she insisted and ed us instead (btw we certainly do not want her to be unhappy). Sharon refused our offers of taking the cat back --- and treating it if there was health problem and we also offered a full refund and we did that up thru the trial...

Certainly the court heard her case this spring and her similar statements as filed here and the court was able to take into account the complete situation and told Sharon she was not going to get a free exotic Bengal cat and determined that her situation was problematic as she did not support bringing the cat back when requested and as a part of the signed contract, or getting a refund and that she even threatened to kill or euthanize the kitten for what is likely a treatable issue that was derived from an undetermined source while asking for us to pay her way without regard the remedies offered and solutions that would have solved the issue for all.  I do agree that people who will not be responsible to legal agreements should not sign them and if they sign an agreement they have a choice to either abide that agreement that stipulates protection for the buyer and seller or they can do their business some place else.