[Cait]

Unlike the rat fancy, which is more pet orientated, the UK mouse fancy does not use contracts. Private breeders may do, but to be honest since everyone knows they're not legally binding it doesn't matter if someone signs it or not - it doesn't stop a potential bad owner because they are not bound by it, and tbh it can be hard if not impossible to know what happens to an animal once it leaves your care if the new owner refuses to keep in touch. Since the UK mouse fancy is a case of all the regular show-goers know each other, that's why there isn't a problem swapping or giving mice to each other. As has been said it's ironically members of the public who want pets that tend to be the problem owners. I've had some lovely people have pet mice from me but I've also had a couple who seemed fine, but turned out to be very poor owners despite having other mice. In one case a friend of mine went and collected the mice I bred and was shocked at the state they had been allowed to get into (they're fine now).

 

[Cait]

Unfortunately animals do attract, and I'm phrasing this politely, nutters. All you can do is speak to the person who would like your animals (whatever species) and try and see if they are knowledgeable (or learning) and what sort of person they are. You can never get it right 100% of the time sadly, contracts do not change that. What exactly do the contracts in the OP consist of?

 

[Cait]

how many times have senior breeders let strains of winning mice go to persons who have been in the fancy a year or so, make all the right noises etc, only to find a year or so later that they have given up and the mice are down the pet store or worse. loads times . a contract saying that the mice have to be retuned to the original supplier if the fancier gives up the breed would be good. five generations-load of rubbuish ! a strain belongs to the breeder by then !

I think all fanciers who have been breeding for a few years (at least in the UK) have had this happen to them, I certainly have a few times. I don't see how a contract will change that - if the buyer never shows etc they don't make the effort to return the mice either, or they sell them off. Either that or by the time they give up they have bred the mice without proper selection and the original show breeder would have no use for taking them back anyway as they have devolved into more pet quality than show quality mice. There are also the people who ask you for pet mice, then a few weeks/months later you see their offspring advertised as 'exhibition' or 'top show quality' mice. That is what really irks me - duping trusting members of the public and giving the hobby/NMC a bad name.

 

[Cait]

I have to say, as an English person I find it both amusing and slightly worrying that you have a lawyer 'on hand' for no particular reason. :lol: