# Is this cat purchase contract enforceable? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2016, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483 "2016-05-10T13:18:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/21 "2016-05-10T22:00:51Z")
> [@ddsun](#): > > All in all, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, unless you’re planning on some form of public cat shaming. 😉 No shaming, just bow-hunting it, and then posting a pic with their trophy on Facebook. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/22 "2016-05-10T22:41:09Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > There’s a billion people out there happy to shove a cat into your arms and take off running in the other direction. [Cats $20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOpGzVvwl-0) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/23 "2016-05-10T23:25:46Z")
None of the cats who have ever lived with my family have been bought, but all of them have been paid for. Just because someone shoves the cats into your arms (or the cat shoves itself into your arms, as was the case for most of ours) doesn’t mean it’s free. You’re still going to be paying for vaccination, fixing, and so on, plus of course food, litter, furniture reupholstering, and other continuing costs. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/24 "2016-05-10T23:33:21Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > [Cats $20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOpGzVvwl-0) Why is he giving them all change? Are they paying with $50s or something? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/25 "2016-05-11T00:04:13Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > \A “kickapoo” is a member of any of [several Indian tribes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickapoo_people) of the central United States and northern Mexico. Yes, it’s been illegal to pay thousands for a Kickapoo since the abolition of slavery.\ Don’t take this the wrong way, but I love you 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/26 "2016-05-11T00:09:56Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Everyone. Seriously, they’re cats. There’s free cats everywhere. > > When we got our last cat, my wife wanted to go to some woman’s “cat rescue” because she sort of knew the woman and thought we’d be doing her a favor. Woman had fifteen cats in her basement, interviewed us (including talking about terms like those in the OP) and then ultimately decided that we weren’t worthy of cat ownership. Which amused me greatly since I’ve owned a cat pretty much continuously since I was a kid and they’ve always been some form of found/stray/abandoned animal. It’s a cat, lady: you feed/water it, clean its litter, make a reasonable attempt to keep it amused and scratch it behind the ears when it jumps on your lap. Bam, that’s everything you need to know. > > Anyway, we wound up at some shelter and paid $300 for a cat which struck me as insane and is $300 more than I’ve ever paid for a cat in my life but so it goes\*. The idea that I’d be essentially leasing or licensing a cat that someone else still owns would be ludicrous. There’s a billion people out there happy to shove a cat into your arms and take off running in the other direction. > > \*Yes, I know that covered shots, exams, sterilization, etc. I’m still used to just having someone else shove a cat at me and being “Hey, free cat…” Even though I’m a big cat lover, I agree with you 100%. Even if that woman’s basement was not currently a hellhole, you cannot and should not run a clandestine cat rescue out of your house. It will eventually & inevitably end badly: Hoarding situation (which it kinda already is), neglected animals, Animal Control seizure, euthanasia etc. I would have reported her, hoping to prevent all that. And $300 is _ **way** _ too high of an adoption fee. You can get (non show-quality) purebreds for that much. Spay/neuter, shots included etc. a shelter should still only charge around $100-150 for kittens, less for adult cats. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/27 "2016-05-11T00:43:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You’re still going to be paying for vaccination, fixing, and so on, plus of course food, litter, furniture reupholstering, and other continuing costs. Well, you’re going to be paying for food, litter, down-the-road vet costs, etc whether the cat was free or if it cost you $15,000 from a magic cat breeder. Seems silly to say that a “free” cat isn’t free on that basis. With one exception (a pregnant stray I adopted), all my cats came pre-fixed from people who’d get a cat, have it fixed, and decide down the line that they couldn’t have/didn’t want a cat. > [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > And $300 is _ **way** _ too high of an adoption fee. It’s possible that I’m remembering high or conflating other costs (food dishes, toys, etc) into the cost. It was a couple years ago and I was mainly scandalized to be paying anything for something I’ve always viewed as basically free. But my wife wanted to get this cat from this place (‘shelter’ housed in a vet’s office) so we paid it. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/28 "2016-05-11T02:40:57Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > something about this just doesn’t sound enforceable to me. While I’m not a lawyer, I don’t think I’m going be satisfied that it is until I see good solid court cases that indicate such. > > I know contracts often have clauses that state if some portion of the contract is nullified, that doesn’t mean the whole contract is nullified…I just have a suspicion that this could be one of those parts that wouldn’t hold up in court. > > Anyone is welcome to prove me wrong, though. Reasonable provisions like this are certainly enforceable. But if they are not reasonable then the courts won’t enforce them as unconscionable. So they can take Fido back if he looks starved after you’ve had him for three months. They almost certainly can’t if you move to an apartment after you’ve had him for 10 years. Note, that doesn’t mean they can legally snatch Fido out of your yard. If they feel they have an actionable reason to take possession of Fido they need to get a court order to do so. If they grab him without an order then it’s theft. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/29 "2016-05-11T04:20:45Z")
It’s an interesting question. Cats (and other animals) are of course chattels. Under normal circumstances, where title has passed (taking into account any conditions on which title will pass) that’s the end of it - damages for breach of other obligations are for damages, not for return of the goods. There are things like unpaid seller’s liens and such, but I don’t think those would be applicable here. If the contract were drafted in such a way that the buyer was obliged to transfer title back to the seller on breach, though? Would the courts enforce such a clause? In transfer of land, the buyer would get an equitable title to the property as soon as the contract was signed. I can’t help but think that the court would decline to order specific performance of such a clause and award damages (if any) instead. For cats, it might seem trivial to get the buyer to give the cat back, but when we’re talking about livestock, it’s different, and the same legal principles should apply. If anyone is bored enough to do the research, I’d like to know. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/30 "2016-05-11T05:41:19Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > In fact, don’t _buy_ a pet at all. Good shelters charge a nominal fee up front, but you usually get to come back when they’re older and get a free neutering included in the price. So it’s more like a neuter deposit than an actual “price”. Well, some breeds produces fewer allergens than others, and as long as people need service dogs, police dogs, cadaver dogs, etc, certain breeds will be needed, but you will be lucky to get one working quality dog out of each litter. The rest of the litter is “pet quality,” and sells for significantly less than the show or work quality animals. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2016, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483/31 "2016-05-11T06:36:29Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > Can you provide some court cases where this has gone to court and been upheld? Are you aware of any court cases like this where that part of the contract was voided? Well, an anecdote from personal experience. Our horse farm seldom sold stallions, mostly geldings (or mares). (If the horse was good enough to remain as a breeding stallion, we kept it ourselves.) But we often sold foals that were younger than the age we preferred to geld them. So we required that the horse be gelded later by the new owner. Technically, our sales contract didn’t require gelding – it just specified that the horse was being sold as a gelding for X dollars, and that if the new owners kept him as a stallion past X date, they would pay 4X dollars additional. I only recall one case where a buyer later tried to renege on this agreement – they wanted to keep the horse as a stallion, but didn’t think it was fair to have to pay more for that. We told them that we would sue to enforce the contract they had signed, and they should consult with their own lawyer or a lawyer experienced in livestock law. They ended up gelding the horse a couple of months later – each lawyer they talked to told them they would lose the case, and that this was a valid, enforceable provision in the contract. So not a court ruling, but legal opinions supporting this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-cat-purchase-contract-enforceable/754483.md?page=1)