Revenge for the death of a kitten
Diane D Addie
www.catvirus.com
Within the last month, I’ve received three emails from people trying to sue cat breeders for selling them a kitten that went on to die of feline infectious peritonitis: this constitutes something of a “flurry” for me: usually such emails are more sporadic. Cat lovers are not usually a vengeful species. I find such contacts distressing: I feel the pain of the bereaved person but there is usually very little I can do to help – usually they contact me too late in the whole process.
Losing a cat can be as traumatic as losing a child for some people, and people go through the same stages of grieving as in a human bereavement: shock and denial, anger, guilt, sadness, depression, then finally acceptance. So it is natural that bereaved cat lovers should feel angry and - in some cases - bent on revenge.
This is Emma – the cat in the photograph above – dying of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). Anisa bought her from a Scottish Fold breeder in Thailand and tragically watched as her beautiful new kitten stopped being the lively, mischievous delight shown above and sickened and died. This is the tragic fate shared by so many purchasers of purebred kittens. Seventy percent of FIP cases occur in pedigree kittens.
Forgiveness vs revenge?
It has been said that:
“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Attributed to Buddha, but more likely from Alcoholics Anonymous
...or ... attributed to Confucius: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
Especially if you have a strong spiritual leaning, you will have heard over and over that you must forgive somebody who has wronged you. Holding onto a grievance is bad for us – bad for our health – that is undeniable. However, nobody can deny that getting revenge feels good - in fact it stimulates the reward centers of the brain: clearly we have evolved to be a revengeful species!
Behavioural economist Prof. Dan Ariely (www.danariely.com) makes the case that revenge is good for society, it is the flip side of trust: for there to be trust in a society revenge needs to exist. Prof. Ariely gave the example that somebody may be tempted to steal from you and run away, but he’ll think twice about doing so if he knows you’re a revengeful person who will hunt him down to the ends of the earth and not only recover what he stole, but also destroy his house! I began to consider that it could benefit the cat breeding community for bad breeders to be weeded out by successful litigations, and reporting to the SPCA – it would be a kind of evolutionary process – survival of the fittest. If cat breeders know that there are a number of kitten buyers out there who, if the kitten they buy goes on to die of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), will engage lawyers and sue them, will tell everybody on the internet about their experience with that breeder, and will try to get law enforcement to confiscate all of the breeder’s cats and close down their business – surely the breeder will then think twice about not bothering to prevent FCoV infection of their kittens?
“Trust and revenge are two sides of the same coin. Revenge creates order in society.” Prof. Dan Ariely
You can hear Prof. Ariely talking about revenge on YouTube here:
So – if you must – get your revenge – but then let it go. But on whom should you vent your anger? Some people channel their anger by wanting to blame or sue the breeder or their veterinarian – is this a good idea?
Shall we sue the cat breeder?
The internet has enabled us to get revenge by giving lousy reviews: we buy a bad product, we give it one star on Amazon; we eat a lousy meal at a restaurant, we let everybody know on Tripadvisor. But what about when we buy a kitten in good faith, looking forward to over a decade of warm, furry, purry companionship, and instead we get endless visits to the veterinary surgery, worry, big invoices and in the end – heartbreak? The people who emailed me have taken breeders to the small claims court to sue them under the Sale of Goods Act, or their country’s version of that. Yet anger against the breeder may not be entirely fair – most breeders are not fully informed about FIP, or worse – misinformed, sometimes even by their own veterinary surgeons who probably don’t know much either and gave them bad advice about FCoV antibody testing. Cat breeders should be rigorously FCoV antibody testing their cats: they screen annually for FeLV and FIV, which is more or less extinct within pedigree cats, and yet they don’t screen test for FCoV which is rampant in pedigree cats and is one of the two major infectious causes of purebred cat death (the other being panleukopenia virus).
It is also the purchaser’s responsibility to get properly informed and to insist upon seeing a FCoV negative antibody test certificate for the kitten they are about to purchase. At catvirus.com we have a campaign to educate potential buyers of purebred kittens with attractive posters which people can download and put up in their own area (see below for more details).
Pitfalls people encounter when suing a cat breeder for a FIP death
Professor Ariely made the point that people who have already lost money may be prepared to spend more money to exact revenge and this is what we see with these bereaved kitten parents – they’ve engaged expensive lawyers in order to exact revenge on the breeders . However, there are some pitfalls to avoid throwing good money after bad:
1. Kitten buyers don’t get an autopsy report
If you are going to sue a breeder, then make sure that you have a post mortem and a histopathological report so that you have irrefutable evidence that the kitten or cat really did die of FIP. This is a very common mistake that people make in the midst of their grief, they don’t ask for a post mortem and for samples to be sent to a reputable veterinary histopathology laboratory (for example, Finn Pathologists, in the UK). It may be in the future that results of a laboratory test called FCoV RT-PCR will be acceptable in a court of law as proof of FIP, and I would certainly support that, but at present time (2017) it would be best to have an official veterinary pathologist’s report.
2. The buyers have other cats who could have been the source of the virus
If the kitten died of FIP within 3 weeks of you getting him, have your other cats FCoV antibody tested immediately – if your remaining cats are FCoV antibody negative – or you take a second test after 4 weeks and demonstrate a rising antibody titre - that will prove that the kitten did NOT get infected from your other cats. However, if your other cats already have high antibody titres to FCoV, then you may be wasting your money if you try to pursue your litigation. If the cat died more than a month after being in your home and your other cats have FCoV antibodies, then the breeder’s lawyer could make the case that the infection could have come from one of your other cats.
If litigation fails, what else could I do?
If litigation is not an option, or you have lost your case, there are other things you can do. Please send the breeder’s name, town and country, website and cat breed details, plus evidence of your cat’s FIP diagnosis to us at eradicatefcov.endfip@gmail.com so that we can enter that breeder onto our database and accumulate information. We also have a database of GOOD cat breeders – so please, if you have bought a FCoV free kitten, do let us know about that. There is also a Facebook page called Bad Cat Breeders, enabling feedback on kitten purchases:
Getting revenge on veterinarians?
Although veterinary surgeons have a duty to inform themselves and stay up to date, the fact is that the ladder of blame goes further up: many veterinary surgeons were misinformed by their lecturers at veterinary schools or by “opinion leaders.” It is difficult for a veterinary surgeon to sift through the conflicting information with which she is bombarded. In addition, reference veterinary laboratories often offer inappropriate tests (for example FCoV RT-PCR on a blood sample, when it is the effusion which should be tested), or they offer tests which simply do not work (watch out for my film about Luca Bonino and FIP, soon to be released on YouTube and BitChute).
What cat breeders can do if they are certain that the FIP did NOT catch feline coronavirus in their cattery or house
Get your veterinary surgeon to do an antibody test for feline coronavirus (FCoV) on all of your cats – or at least those with whom the deceased kitten came into contact: if your cats are FCoV antibody negative that should close the case and prove your innocence. If the cats are FCoV antibody positive then you must learn how to early wean and isolate future litters of kittens to prevent FCoV infection – and so prevent FIP.
Cat breeders in denial that their cats are infected with FCoV
I encounter the grief stage of denial most often with cat breeders who don’t want to believe that a beautiful kitten they sold, which went on to die of FIP, caught FCoV in their household: after all, the kitten seemed perfectly all right until he left their care! However, unless a breeder tests all their cats annually for FCoV antibodies, and KNOWS that they are FCoV free because all their cats test negative, it is almost inevitable that the virus did come from their household. Deep down they know the signs were there: the diarrhoea beginning at 5- 7 weeks of age, the strange occurrence of stunted kittens and litters of kittens all different sizes. The sooner they face the fact that their cats are FCoV infected and begin doing early weaning and isolation of the kittens (see my book ‘FIP and Coronavirus,’ on Amazon or on www.catvirus.com) the less their chance of being sued or reported to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the risk of losing all of their cats.
Ultimately it is the virus who is to blame – get revenge on that
All this is closing the door after the horse has bolted: it is cold comfort as you sit with your urn of ashes, instead of a warm cat, on your knee. My own anger is directed not at the breeders or the ill-informed veterinary surgeons, but at the virus – to such an extent as to want to see it wiped off the face of the earth! I want consumer pressure on breeders to guarantee that their kittens are FCoV free. Join me in getting revenge on the virus by joining my subscription-only EndFIP Facebook group or working directly with me to eradicate FCoV from your cats. Anger can be a powerful motivating force. Some people have channelled that anger into fighting back against the virus by raising funds for FIP research or spreading knowledge at cat shows and over the internet. Following are some of the ways people have constructively taken revenge on feline coronavirus:
Artist Kerry Bunyan has designed beautiful posters:
Isabel Galera translated my book into Spanish:
I am sure that you can think of other creative ways to get revenge on the virus.
EndFIP Facebook Group
The EndFIP group is a closed, subscription-only group of people who want to attack the virus in several ways: first by spreading knowledge about FIP, creating consumer demand for FCoV free kittens to motivate cat breeders to eradicate the virus in their households. Secondly the EndFIP group gives their money to support research into stopping healthy cats from shedding FCoV, recognising that it is difficult for cat breeders to avoid this highly infectious virus by good hygiene alone. Ending FIP coming from cat breeders will get rid of 70% of FIP. Once we’ve cracked that, we’ll finish off the other 30%!
You can also support my work by becoming a subscriber to www.catvirus.com