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Thieves and liarsA CAUTIONARY TALEIn December of 2007 I contacted a lady called Renee Bourke in Australia.Her prefix is Shamuneko.I entered into an agreement with her to buy a cinnamon male kitten, as a potential stud cat.We agreed a price for the kitten and she sent me the details of the costs for vaccinations, pet passporting and shipping.Due to our quarantine laws he would not have been able to travel to this country until August or September of 2008.All went smoothly until the end of April 2008 when it became impossible to make contact.Emails went unanswered, as did the phone.In June I eventually tracked her down and re-established contact, through the efforts of a good friend of mine, via a cat-chat board.She made some weak excuses and promised updated photos etc.Nothing was forthcoming and I was reduced to sitting up into the early hours of the morning in order to be able to phone her at her place of work.She assured me that all the paperwork was in order and that we just needed the vets signature on his rabies certificate in order for his flights to be booked.By this time I had paid for him in full, for his vaccinations and pet passport and all his travelling costs.Then the excuses started - they became more and more bizarre as time went on.Eventually, after she had said that I wouldn't be able to have him until Spring 2009, I lost patience and told her that I was very unhappy with the situation. At this point she offered me my money back.After considerable heartsearching, and a few sleepless nights, I decided that this was the best course of action. At this point she decided to deduct her "out of pocket" expenses from the money she owed me.In an attempt to save something of the situation I agreed a sum with her which she promised to repay in October 2008.The money wasn't forthcoming - yet more excuses.She then said she would do a bank transfer in November 2008 (she works in a bank) - still no money and no contact either.I have presented the facts to the GCCFV (the Australian Governing Council of the Cat Fancy) and this is the gist of reply I received.As she didn't renew her annual subscription, and didn't reply to the letter they sent calling her to account for her actions there was nothing they could do.They did suggest that I should report her to the police and take her to court.Her web site is now inactive and her mobile phone number is no longer in use.Unfortunately this brings into question dealing with breeders from outside of the UK ( due to the difficulty of obtaining any legal redress, if things go wrong) and taints us all.I know that I am not the only person to suffer at the hands of this unscrupulous woman, which is why I have decided to put this information on my web site, in the hopes that the information here will prevent someone else having to go through this experience. Bardsong Oriental Cats This website was created using MAGIX Website Maker You will need the current version of Adobe Flash Player to view it. Further information can be found at magix.info - the Multimedia Knowledge Community by MAGIX, the market leader for music, photo, and video software. |