Pure-bred kittens fetching €800

While the twin issues of dog thefts and the record-high prices being fetched for pups have been well documented, there has been less focus on their pedigree feline cousins.

Border cats are fetching up to €800 for certain breeds like Maine Coon and the British short hair cats, The Anglo-Celt has learned this week. Meanwhile, pedigree Bengal kittens are realising up to €1,000 both North and South of the Border. Exotic Persian kittens are also popular and usually fetch between €500 and €600.

The demand for pedigree cats is on the increase across the country generally and some breeders, who had been concentrating on selling dogs in the past, are now also getting into the cat business in this region.

However, one animal welfare expert has highlighted how some cat lovers are also forking out hundreds of euro for kittens with dubious pedigrees and no papers to prove their lineage.

It is understood that claims are being made to customers that the kittens are pedigree but, in some cases, the purchaser leaves without the relevant papers. It is then not easy to determine, exactly the pedigree.

Tina Boyle from Cavan SPCA told the Celt that there are pedigree cats out there that are commanding “big money”.

“When you are paying big money for a kitten, you need to get the papers and proof of vaccination and veterinary surgeons signing off on it – people don’t realise that,” she outlined.

“You could be going off with a kitten for €600 or €700 with no papers. Then somebody tells you that you should have got the papers. Then they get onto people like me in the Cavan SPCA. Then they ring the people who sold them the kitten but they won’t answer the phone,” she continued of the difficulties being encountered.

When Tina receives such calls, she advises that the consumer should not have purchased the kitten without the papers.