Dealing with ethics complaints, my view

How should ethics complaints against a cat breeder be handled? Whoever originally receives the complaint, whether the cat association office, a director, or a fellow breeder, should direct the complainant to file an official complaint. A form, listing the parties involved and any substantiating documentation such as contracts, health records, witnesses, etc., should be filed, preferably free of charge, to the cat association office. This information should initially be relayed to the accused party, so they have a chance to deal with it personally and have the complaint withdrawn, perhaps giving 30 days or some other specified period of time. During that time, the information should be forwarded to a panel of a disciplinary committee, one of which would be responsible to contact the accused breeder to see if any help can be found to resolve the issue, such as providing health information, providing help and information on *how* to deal with their customers in a concerned tone, rather than being defensive, time management skills (which can help with both paperwork and housing conditions), and general help with mediation to avoid further action.

As cat breeders we should be a resource for other breeders, offering help and advice when we can. While help is not always welcome, I think it takes a few years for people to work through a few problems to realize that if they only had immediate information, whatever problem they dealt with could have been short-lived, rather than a continuing issue.

Ethics & Cat Breeding

As a current member of the Board of Directors for the Canadian Cat Association, I have been involved in Board discussions relating to complaints against cat breeders either because of the health of kittens, contract disputes, or the conditions in catteries. At the moment, the CCA office refers these complaints either to the Humane Society, if they involve health or cattery conditions, or to small claims courts if they involve contracts or financial disputes. The current Board of Directors does not have the time or resources to become involved in disputes between breeders, seeing many of them as frivolous and unnecessary "cat fights" between members, or between breeders and their customers.

While this may seem an easy way to handle these complaints, the spin-off is a very bad rap for cat breeders. Many cat associations have a complaint process whereby complainants can write a formal complaint which is then discussed by a disciplinary committee, receiving comments from both sides, and then a decision is reached to issue some form of disciplinary action, such as revoking membership, or forcing the issuance of registration paperwork, money owed, etc. to avoid such discipline. This negates the need for either the courts or humane societies to become involved.

In this day and age of puppy and kitten mills, back yard breeders and increased legislation restricting the ownership of pets, any avoidance of lumping ourselves in with undesirable suppliers of pets should be embraced rather than dismissed as beyond our control. If other associations do it, we can certainly do it. As a *private* association, we are in complete control of who we allow as members and therefore, who gets to advertise on our website.

I am not sure if it is still done as routine, but it used to be when you joined the CCA, you had to agree and sign a Code of Ethics as a requirement for your membership. I know I have signed one, yet what does it mean? At the moment, nothing.

I will continue this discussion on future posts as time and thoughts permit. I hope you will also comment.

Tracey