- Report: #1449328
Complaint Review: The Serval Conservation and Education Refuge - Hartford Alabama
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Author Not Confirmed
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The Serval Conservation and Education Refuge
Hartford, 36344 Alabama, United States
Phone:
334-449-0168
Web:
www.servalrescue.org
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The Serval Conservation and Education Refuge Southern Savvannahs Mechel Whitikar Sold me a sick African Serval kitten Hartford Alabama
Report Attachments
To all the future serval buyers and owners in North America, I would like to explain my experience with Donna Mechel Whitaker of The serval conservation and education refuge in Hartford Alabama.
In the spring of 2014 I bought a serval kitten from Mechel Whitaker in the state of Florida, she told me to come to panama city to meet her there in a parking lot, she handed me the kitten which was in a travelling crate, she supplied no health documentation , No Florida travel permits or and USDA paper work, she claimed that the file was going to be mailed to me, I paid her $4500 usd in cash and asked for a receipt, she said she will mail one to me.
The kitten arrived at my residence, I opened the crate and let him out, immediately I noticed that he started to have aggressive behaviour and after 20 mins watching him act aggressively, he started to twitch and fall on his side, his eyes were glazed and he was shaking, I did not know what to do, so I called the breeder Donna Mechel Whitaker, she did not answer my phone call, I tried numerous times that day. I also sent her an email explaining the situation, she never replied to my email. I messaged her on Facebook and was then blocked and kicked out of the serval cat lover group.
I contacted my vet and took the serval kitten immediately to the vet, he did blood work, to which he found out that his calcium levels were low and phosphorus levels were extremely high. My vet told me that this was due to diet related and to change his diet, which we did.
Took the serval kitten home and over a few days after feeding him a proper diet, recording all his vitals each week, his twitching , which the vet said were seizers, seemed to be in control.
My serval kittens aggressive behaviour never seemed to changed, I contacted many serval breeders around the world through social media sources, to help me with his problem, I had never heard anything back from Donna Mechel Whitaker, or received any paperwork that was promised to me.
After a few weeks I took the serval kitten back to the vet for further examinations which costed me $3000 usd. The vet discovered after seeing all the reports of the tests that the serval kitten has neurological disorder, due to which he will continue to have seizures and this is caused due to inbreeding.
I Had the kitten for 6 months and in the late fall , I came home one day and found that the serval kitten had gone into a severe seizure, I panicked and called my vets, he advised to bring the serval kitten immediately to the vet, before I could reach the vet office the serval kitten died. I was devastated and still am. I have tried to contact the breeder Donna Mechel Whitaker snice the death of my kitten, and there has never been a reply back, nor have I received any refund back for my costs.
I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS BREEDER TO ANYONE, AFTER MY EXPERIENCE.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Mechel
Hartford,Alabama,
United States
Director of TSCAER
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, November 14, 2018
This report is a hoax and meant to hurt my reputation as a breeder. I have never sold a serval to anyone that I have not stood behind 100%. I was never contacted about a sick cat and I do not see any of the paper work that proves I even sold a cat to this person. If this person is legit, why dont they call me at (((REDACTED))). I will be glad to discuss this with them.
The documents attached to this report have nothing to do with selling a cat and are in reference to an incident in sarasota fl. during 2017. I was invited to bring 2 of my serval kittens to attend the Feline conservation Federation Yearly conference and was told I would not need to apply for permits because I would be added to the FCF's Directors permit (Lynn Culver), which they do for all members outside of Fl. that bring cats to their events. You have to have a class 2 florida permit to apply for a travel permits. That takes about a year to get and you have to live in florida to get it. I live in Alabama. Alabama does not recquire a permit. When I arrived no one told me that they had forgotten to add me to the permit. Instead they called the FWS and reported me. My attorney said it was one of my competitors and she was trying to purposly damage my reputation. I have a feeling this person is the same person that filed this slanderous post because she has done it countless times.
The person that filed this report did not attach supporting evidence to back up what she is saying. If her cat had neurological problems it would not have been caused by the genetics or breeding. And definitely has nothing to do with inbreeding. Did she prove inbreeding? Did she do a MRI to check for head injuries? Where are the results? Where are the DNA tests. How could I even help them if they didnt even call me. Neurological problems are mainly caused by head injuriers and feeding the wrong diet. I help alot of people and alot of servals and in all the cases that involve servals and siezures, It always comes down to a phos/calcium imbalance.
If the cat was not being fed whole prey or wasnt given enough bone or calcium, a imbalance will occur and then the siezures will start. It is If the seizures are allowed to continue and the vet fails to recognize the chemistry level abnormalities the cat will become paralyzed and suffer other neurological difficulties. This happens very often.. It is very expensive to feed a serval a whole prey diet and some buyers try to keep it cheap and feed them domestic cat food or a homemade grind. In fact I have written 2 books and I teach serval diet classes online in order to get the word out. You can check me out on FACEBOOK Group "Serval Cat Lovers and Educational Group". I have helped dozens of people with servals having siezures due to diet imbalances.
If you have any questions or what me to add anything else, feel free to contact me (((REDACTED)))
Mechel Whitaker(ASCP) MLS
