{"id":6792,"date":"2025-09-06T22:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/6792\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T22:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:22:08","slug":"disputes-tribunal-orders-refund-after-diseased-unvaccinated-cat-sold-by-breeder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/6792\/","title":{"rendered":"Disputes Tribunal orders refund after diseased, unvaccinated cat sold by breeder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The breeder was considered a \u201ctrader\u201d, albeit at a \u201cmodest level\u201d \u2013 she was registered as a breeder, but had been involved in breeding over a long period on a \u201csporadic basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

The new owner purchased the 16-month-old pedigree cat for $700. <\/p>\n

The owner said she had not owned a cat of that breed before and did not realise, when it was delivered to her, that it was underweight. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe cat was found to be underweight, with tooth decay and weepy eyes. Photo \/ Stock image.<\/p>\n

She took it for a vet check-up three days later, and was advised it was underweight, had weepy eyes, decay in its teeth, and was not in good health overall. <\/p>\n

The vet also said the cat was not up to date with its vaccinations.<\/p>\n

The owner told the tribunal<\/a> she never received the cat\u2019s vaccination booklet from the breeder, but the breeder said the cat was fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n

The cat had some teeth extracted, and the vet said it would require corneal grafts. <\/p>\n

The owner gave the cat to her daughter to look after, as she planned to try to return it to the breeder and didn\u2019t want to become attached to it.<\/p>\n

The tribunal heard the owner then got in touch with the breeder about the health issues, and there were discussions about returning it and obtaining a refund. <\/p>\n

However, the owner said \u201ccommunication issues\u201d meant the cat was not able to be sent back in a \u201creasonable time or manner\u201d. <\/p>\n

After testing confirmed it had feline leukaemia virus, the vet said the cat should be euthanised.<\/p>\n

The owner got in touch with the breeder\u2019s vet, and they agreed to the cat being euthanised. <\/p>\n

The breeder told the tribunal the cat did not have any dental decay that she was aware of when the cat was sold. <\/p>\n

She said while the cat was on the \u201clight side\u201d it had not been, in her opinion, underweight.<\/p>\n

However, tribunal adjudicator Arti Chand found that, on the evidence, the cat was infected with FeLV when sold to the owner. <\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, that the cat was visibly unwell when sold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accept the evidence from the vet notes in this respect, including the seriousness of the onset of FeLV, which meant that the cat had to be euthanised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chand found the cat was \u201cnot of acceptable quality\u201d when sold to the owner.<\/p>\n

The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 allows for a right to a refund, and compensation for consequential loss, where a failure to meet a relative guarantee is of a \u201csubstantial character\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chand noted this was usually dependent on the goods that had been supplied being able to be returned to the supplier. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat is, obviously, not possible here because the cat has been euthanised, and I re-affirm what I believe I have made clear above that that action was for entirely valid reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chand found the owner was entitled to a refund for the purchase price of the cat, including delivery costs, as well as compensation for all the vet-related costs.<\/p>\n

The breeder was ordered to pay the owner $1000.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The breeder was considered a \u201ctrader\u201d, albeit at a \u201cmodest level\u201d \u2013 she was registered as a breeder,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,8689,3595,8688,8686,6846,111,43,139,69,6848,6851,3235,6847,8687],"class_list":["post-6792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-breeder","tag-by","tag-cat","tag-diseased","tag-disputes","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-orders","tag-refund","tag-sold","tag-tribunal","tag-unvaccinated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}