Sick birds selling at sales

I was reading another forum and there was a discussion on sick birds being sold at auctions and sales. What are your opinions on this?

there are two types of breeders.... ones that care about their animals, and the other kind are just in it for the money.

selling ANYTHING that is sick, knowingly!, is unethical. full disclosure is always a must. then the buyer can make the decision as to whether they can provide the best care for the sick animal. in regards to poultry, depending on what it is sick with, a cull is usually best (and I said depending on what it is sick with folks, a common sniffle doesn't require culling, but something like mycoplasma, or suspected ILT should be)

I don't think I will ever buy from an auction or even go to one, from all I have heard I makes me think the risk is just to great. While I am sure there are responsible breeders useing auctions to reduce their flocks, there seems to be too many just trying to dump birds and you have no idea what kind of situation they are coming from
. I also would concern me that even if you buy a really nice bunch of birds at an auction, they will have been exposed to the sick birds that shouldn't be there.

Ive bought birds at sales generally there fine but Ive had birds that died within days of bringing them home. The seller had to have known there was something wrong with them as I could tell the minute I took them out of the box. I have also bought a goose in a gunney Sack when I got home it had a broken wing with the large bone sticking out. That would be hard for the seller to miss. Some sellers just have too many birds and are downsizing and others are like the old cattle fellow I knew his quote was "Ive never shipped a good cow". So they cull at the auction. I guess its buyer beware and go to the market sales or buy at the farmgate. If you knowingly ship sick birds to the auction I guess you are morally & ethically bankrupt. I think maybe the auctions should require your name and phone # on your boxes you sell, then you would be accountable.

DLC wrote: I think maybe the auctions should require your name and phone # on your boxes you sell, then you would be accountable.

I agree with this! I have always let people know with whatever animal I sell that if they are unhappy with it, please let me know. I even left a letter with a mare I sold at auction the one time giving my name, phone number, ect. I told people exactly what they were getting. Anyone could ride her most of tthe time, but on occasion she would light into bucking. The people who bought her phoned me 2 months later thanking me for the info on her, and told me she has been awesome, but they are watching.

It is buyer beware at auctions, but you still expect at bare minimum birds/animals that are not showing signs of sickness!!

DLC wrote: I think maybe the auctions should require your name and phone # on your boxes you sell, then you would be accountable.

I like this idea!

To knowingly sell a sick bird (or any animal for that matter) is unethical and flat out wrong. I would not willing deal with such a dishonest person a second time.

I’ve been pretty lucky with most of the birds I’ve purchased from auctions. Some I knew were from good, healthy stock (like the Cochin x’s from Hidden River Ranch ), but the others I took a risk on. One box I bid on (pure impulse purchase) had been marked and read by the auctioneer as containing 2 LF Barred Rock pullets. In truth they were bantams, an older hen and a young roo. They also had a bad case of scaley leg mites, which I discovered after getting them home and looking into why their legs looked "funny". I was a complete auction newbie then and know alittle better now. But yeah, it’s definitely buyer beware at such events.

I have a hunch that it was one of my posts.
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If a seller sells sick birds at a sale they are destroying their own reputation. At an auction their identity is usually hidden if they don't put identification on their boxes.After being in this business for a couple of years now I certainly know who I can recommend and who I can't. A bad reputation stays with you forever.

Yes I agree with everyone here.
I agree with you too Liz, if someone does something unethical it sticks with you for sure. Auctions are an easy way for people to unload unwanted birds, but it is also a place to unload problem birds, when they should be just culled at home and never taken anywhere to expose others of their problems.
I like the fact that the market sales hold buyers more accountable, but at the same time a few people I have talked to that have concerns didnt know who their seller's were. They didnt send home any business cards or anything. That is not good for business I feel. If I sell a bird to someone no matter if it is at an auction or at a Market sale I include my card with them or have it marked on the boxes. I also try to educate people on quarantine and such not only for the safety of their flocks but the safety of the new birds going home to those flocks.

This quote concerned me though from another forum,

We announced that we wanted only healthy animals and suggested that people put thier flocks on SuperBooster for at least a few days before the sale

I do not think anyone that has birds that are healthy should have to treat them with antibiotics before a sale, seems wrong to me, almost like they are trying to make the bird well enough to get through the sale and then fair game for crashing once at the new owner's place. Also feeding medications to a bird then selling it without telling the new buyers seems wrong as well, what if they were to start collecting eggs right away or even butcher the birds? Should they not know withdrawls ahead of time?

I do however believe in electrolytes, the sales and travel to sales is extremely stressful on birds, well all animals, and the electrolytes would help to give them the energy to stay healthy. I also believe that people should have food and water in their cages not only at Auctions but at Market sales, something some people forget that these birds are for the most part without food and water for 12-36 or more hours...

What I find myself questioning more is responsibility. I just finished posting about this on another site. I think the time is approaching, maybe already here, that we shouldn't be looking at ourselves as just a person who happens to keep chickens in the backyard.

I recenlty watched a documentary called Mad City Chickens about the urban chicken movement. A line strikes me now as I type. At one time it was common for people who moved into the cities to bring their chickens with them and that it was only after the World War 2 and the rise of the suburbs that chickens were banished as being unsanitary. Now poultry is once again making their way back into the urban enviroment with the rise of the underground chicken movement.

When you think about it, collectively we are just as big as the commercial poultry operators. We preserve heritage breeds, preserve gene pools, we raise exhibition poultry, this and more besides raising them for meat and eggs.
Maybe we should look at auctions that are used as dumping grounds for spent poultry as a threat to our own industry
and bad sellers as people we should be doing what we can to put out of business.

I know it doesn't stop it completely but maybe we should start looking at it as being all of our business rather than just the buyers?