Is it safe/okay to buy "free" , "giving away" or auction animals???

[prochicken]

As long as you check them out an a they look healthy they should be fine.

 

[tinychicky]

well, it's kind of a gamble. sometimes people get rid of animals they don't want because they are sick or old (i got a beautiful serama pullet who turned out to have a crossed beak i didn't notice a little while ago) an sometimes they are free because the owner can't take care of them and needs to find a home fast because it's best for the animal. i've had to give my roosters away because i had to many and some of them fought and had to be seperated. they were very unhappy all alone in seperate crates and cages. it was best to find homes for them. really, it could go either way.

 

[heathersboers]

Please do not buy a goat from an auction-- that is where everyone takes their culls- too old- not good mamas- wont breed-disease-blind, cripple, crazy etc.. It is well worth a little bit more money for a healthy animal, where you can actually step foot on the property to see the living conditions. We got into goats 10 years ago and bought 30 goats at an auction- within a week half were dead- just fell over -GONE. We stepped back and re grouped.

We breed registered boer goats and have a closed herd-no goats in- at all unless tested . One bad animal can tear apart your hard work by passing on disease.. If it is FREE - There would have to be a good explaination as to WHY it is free before id even consider it.. Be careful- even goats as pets only can carry lice, pass pinkeye and lots of other problems.

 

[WIChookchick]

I am getting 4 chickens of the CL on Saturday, I was the 1st to call and they will go from his city coop to my barn owner's stall on the other end of the barn, to be QT'd for a few weeks to a month.

I got an 11 yr old reg. arab gelding who needs a little love and needs to trust, but is broke, with a proven endurance record.
I have gotten chickens, and my current dog who is now 3 off the CL.

I went to a sheep/goat auction and small animal swap, it was sad, and scary. I won't go to another one.
I do go to horse/tack auctions, and have been to fish auctions... yes they have them. Very interesting to go to.

IF you attend, look for bright eyes, no discharge from the front OR rear, personality, and always QT.
I have also bought privately and had health issues, so its always a gamble.

Carol

 

[patandchickens]

"safe"? when is acquiring an animal ever "safe"?

But if you are asking whether it is RISKIER to buy from auction or craigslist, the answer is "usually those are riskier sources than "normal" private sale".

For instance the proportion of horses with really, really significant things wrong with them is MUCH higher at low-end auctions (i.e. I am not including breed auctions where the average selling price is $20,000 -- I mean the kind of auction you are talking about).

Also sheep and goats sent to livestock auction are very often there for a good REASON.

And even if animals are healthy when they arrive at the auction, they are exposed to quite the soup of diseases while there, so have a considerably higher-than-average chance of poppin' with something after you get them home.

So with auction animals, "it looks healthy" is not really much guarantee at all. For one thing it depends on being an extremely experienced judge of animals; for another thing, the folks who run cull animals thru auctions are often extremely experienced at presenting them in such a way that their problem is not visible; and finally there is the problem of things caught *at* the sale that don't become apparent for days or weeks afterwards.

Craigslist is a poor place to buy horses unless you really, really, really know what you are doing and have a lot of time to waste driving out to see inappropriate horses. But for goats and sheep and chickens and such, it is arguably a bit less risky than a typical auction.

But, remember, not all problems will be evident on visual inspection, especially if some pains have been taken to MAKE them not visible.

Pat

 

[chickened]

In the not to recent past when life was just a little more simple and the average person was not influenced by outside pressure and uneducated well meaning persons the sick, deformed, undesirable and what ever the reason for not wanting an animal it was socially acceptable for that person to cull the animal or sell it for non-human consumption. As these "safety net sources" if you will are being taken away or demonized and we now recycle these animals to "loving homes" therefore aiding in the spread of disease more so than the regular buying and selling practices. The auctions play a needed role and as recent posts have said an educated buyer is best. And despite a breeders best efforts disease can strike to a closed flock.

 

[WIChookchick]

At that small animal swap/ sheep/goat auction...
A person brought her several month old male icelandic(?) sheep. 1 had been in a petting zoo, they had not been run in to the holding pens at the auction, she was selling them at the swap outside.
BUT she had decided not to have them de-budded, so guess what happened, the sweetest and nicest of them had a date with a butcher even if the buyer really didn't want to.
WHY.. the horns were going to grow into the skull. Trying to de-horn at that age leads to major complications, expense and can lead to massive infection and death.
A simple de-budding... but no.. all of them were doomed by this person's stupidity.


I saw an ad for frizzle chickens from a well known local breeder, he breeds rarer types of chickens. He knowingly sold me a hurt and crippled chicken. They were already in the box, and I did check them, he lied to me,
and then 2 weeks later after many phone calls and the rooster taking a turn for the worse.... I had to return him to get my money back, he refused to let me on the property.
I mean really...and the chick that came with the roo, also got sick and died, I am glad I kept her in QT.

Anyone can sell an animal that is doomed, it can be healthy, at auction or privately, but it can be injured or get diseased after you get it.
Its always a (blank) shoot.

Carol

 

[1MrsMagoo]

We share 600' of fenceline with major horse broker's auction mare lot (his least expensive horses that he buys and sells at auction get put here). He gets a lot of really sick horses through there. Our filly got loose and went to visit his girls at the fence line last fall and the result???? A case of strangles that required an emergency trach; a load of antibiotics and repeated visits by the equine vet. Animals that have been through auction or feed lots can be exposed to a bevy of diseases and illnesses and may be an asymptomatic carrier that will bring their issues to your animals.

That being said....not everybody who is selling an animal is doing so because their is something wrong with it. I got a great horse from a poor man who had cancer and just couldn't keep up with taking care of her. I've also gotten a couple animals from auctions and people from craigslist before. I went and looked and if they looked healthy then they came home to quarantine...quarantine....quarantine.

Just use common sense. Also, make yourself a little cheat sheet of things to look for so you don't forget anything. If it is a kind of animal you haven't had before....like a goat....is their a vet that will treat goats anywhere close? I had a heck of a time finding one and have to drive 35 miles to get to his office.

Good luck!

 

[Lyddz]

I agree that these transactions can go either way, and it looks like both sides of the issue are more or less evenly supported, as long as the animals are checked and quarantined. This is a helpful thread, thanks all!!

 

[17roses]

Personally for me - I wont add an animal to my property if I have not seen it's living conditions. I have used Craigslist many times and sometimes the pictures look great but when I get to their place it is a health hazard nightmare. I have seen goats with weeping eyes in knee-deep mud and the goat I came to see was essentially sprayed off and put in a dog kennel - it did not have weepy eyes but no way am I buying a goat that lived with the others I saw. I have spent too much time and money on the animals I have to put them in danger without assessing the risk by seeing the enviroment they came from. That being said, no matter where you buy them - quarantine, quarantine, quarantine!!!