Its not just puppy farmers that are irresponsible :( :( I heard from my vet the other day that he had a buzzard in with a bad leg. Then knowing I keep hawks, he rang me 2 days ago and said it was still in the practise, it was too evil for them to keep there and the nurses were getting upset about the dead chicks!!!LOL so I went and collected him today. Not a buzzard (well not a UK one) he was a huge red tail hawk!
Eventually calmed him enough to get a good look at his leg ring.....traced him to a breeder in the south east. Turns out he sold him to a bloke who "called in on the off chance" he had a bird (any type?) for sale. :(
Managed to get hold of this  bloke , who bought it as a xmas pressy for son (15) because theyd seen them at a country fair! they took bird back to cornwall, didnt really know what to do with it and soon it had flown off.
because they were ignorant they didnt know who to report a lost bird to so they just gave up on him. This would have been certain death because he was all furnished and his jesses only had to tangle on a wire or branch and hes a dead bird. Also he had no hunting skills.Luckily he got clipped by a car over 100 miles from where he started (we joked he was a homing hawk on his way back to brighton!), taken to my vets and now hes here. I have spoken to the lad tonight....given him a week to either make proper arrangements as approved by ME or he stays here.
So it seems its not just irresponsible dog breeders out there.....their kind are in every walk of life/species, mores the pity.

This is terrible, the poor bird :-(  At least it's getting cared for now.

In a way i'm thinking it would be better if the owner didn't make proper arrangements at least the bird will be safe.

Paula

ditto [aula,

but it does make me wonder why the guy was sold a bird without any advise on how to look after it.

Oh no :( Poor thing.
Heard today that 6 buzzards have been shot aroud here in last 2 weeks :(
These are wild birds that have only become established again after reintroduction about 10 years ago :( :(
Lea.

paula, tbh i dont imagine he will make any arrangements especially as i told him there was a hefty vet bill waiting for him! :) I imagine that we will never hear from him again after the conversation we had, but felt i should put him into a position of feeling the decision was down to him, as technically he could get the bird back if he wanted to...I just wanted to make it very dificult for him and try to put him off.

no idea whwere you live lea, but astounded that buzzards (ie common Buteos) need reintroduction as we are completely over run with them here!! However this is an American red Tailed Hawk, and not a native UK species.

newf.....as title of my post suggests....he is falconrys equivalent to a puppy farmer....couldnt care to whom he sells, or the future welfare of the animal.

thats so awful...idiot 'breeder' and idiot people...i'd love to learn some falconry but would never be daft enough to randomly buy a bird! surely a bit dangerous for the kid as well as the bird? i image they can do some serious damage if not handled correctly (much like buying a rottie/dobe etc for an inexperienced kid...). some right dafties out there.

Ahh the vet bill i didn't think of that, good i hope it does put him off ;-)

Yep like the others have said a daft impulse buy without any thought for the bird.

Paula

Now I remember why I'm a picky little S**T when it comes to grilling potential puppy owners.  The ones who object go to a puppy farmer who doesn't ask questions.  The ones who say what else do you need to know about us are considered!  In your position I would have emphasised how much the vet bills were too.  Good on you.

Good grief.  At least the bird is in safe hands now - I dread to think what could have become of him.

Indescriminate breeding and homing drives me bananas - it's why I have so many rats (2 large litters bred to a demand for a few kits so they didn't sell).

It's also why I ended up with so many when I worked at home - indiscriminate homing to the wrong people resulting in "biters" being brought back (must've brought home half a dozen biters altogether, and only one of them actually ever bit).

I can imagine cats also get this poor treatment.  I don't have any but would imagine that they also need health tests and as soooooo many people breed their pets there must be some pretty unhealthy cats out there.  I could be completely wrong (no cat owning experience) so please correct me!!

My cat is extremely healthy, never a day sick in his life at almost six years old. He was from a pet cat who's family had let her breed with any old tom - because' it'd be nice to have a litter'  :-((doh!) But we had another with bladder problems who had been a feral cat. I think its how well you look after them, as much as anything. Although I can quite imagine pedigrees needed tests having been closely bred. Especially Persians and Siamese. A cat breeder will be along soon to correct me too, I'm sure..! :-)

not atall sure why someone has brought up cats in my post!!!

sorry !!!  -embarassed smiley-

Its not just dogs or birds people breed rabbits and guinea pigs too trying to make money. I would like to know how people make a profit or at least cover their costs when breeding guinea pigs. Im a show breeder of dalmation cavies (guinea pigs) and have been for over 25 years, i get a lot of mismarks babies which i like to sell as pets, these pet people who sell whole litters are flooding the market. Maybe one day they will wake up and realise there is no money in breeding guinea pigs.

I have been told there are kittens farms about suppling pet shops. I have heard of puppy farms but not kitten farms.

All the big pet shops in my area buy from a dealer, he breeds rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, hamsters, gerbils, budgies, canaries and finches, and they are bred in a big way.

with the greatest respect tricolours......i think the average household could manage to look after  a guinea pig.However  a virtually wild and aggressive red tail can easily take your face off in one move...not the ideal thing to sell to just anyone!

sam you would be surprised on how many people dont know that guinea pigs dont produce their own vit c, and without it they will die, and as so owners must give it to them via feeding veg or giving vit c tablets in their water. All though guinea pigs are an easy animal to look after, you would be suprised on the amount of people who dont know how to look after them properly.

I appreciate that a red tail is more of a specialist pet (if pet is the right word for them) but as a breeder of these small rodents i still want them to go to a home who will look after them.

Sorry about hijacking the thread!!
Tricolours, I had 3 guinea pigs that all died within about 3 weeks of each other when I was younger. They were only about 1 1/2 years. Could that hgave been the reason not enough fresh veg??? (I was only a teenager at the time!!)
Lea :)

Sam - sorry it was me who brought up the cats as I also wondered if these were expolited in the same way as dogs are by puppy farmers.  I do appreciate though that a cat is not going to be as dangerous as a sizeable bird of prey.  Glad to see you are in the process of finding him/her a new respnsible home :-)

If they all lived to be 1 1/2 years i dought it was a vit c problem.

Thanks. At the time they died it wasnt me looking after them as I was nursing a shoulder injury which meant I couldnt even look after my son!!!! So have felt guilty since but was probaly more to it then I realised!!!!
Thankyou again
Lea :)