Sherry wrote:
I'm not sure why a breeder would insist on not vaccinating a pet, especially when there are owners who do allow their bengals to roam the outdoors.
It's hard to know exactly the specifics; however what was mentioned is that if you vaccinated for FIP or FELV it would void their health contract. I can only speculate a little on this; but, the most likely reason is that if the breeder had a health guarantee with includes FELV and FIP (which a lot of breeders do) and you then vaccinate for FELV or FIP; the cats will now test positive for the disease purely due to the vaccine. So void the health contract in order to avoid people suing after them due to the vaccine making them test positive.
Pet contracts are really awkward and very hard to enforce unless written properly. I'm not sure how many people are aware that cats are considered to be chattel in the eyes of the law (in most countries - definitely US, Canada and the UK) and have very different rights. One thing that is frequently gotten wrong is that (again depending on where you live) you can't ever be forced to return a pet to the breeder - it's completely unenforceable. You also can't be forced to neuter your cat or not declaw them (please don't declaw your cat!). It is possible for the breeder to "penalize" you if you break their contract (e.g. a fine of $1,000 for breeding a cat that was supposed to be spayed); but only if that was explicitly written in the contract. But I digress!