What can I do now?

[nduetime]

A friend and I both purchased "registered" nubians only to find out after the purchase that the previous owner had not registered them yet but that they were registerable. Apparently she is "behind" on registration and the dams and sires were not yet done. Now what? Both does are bred to registered bucks or registerable bucks for all we know and we are stuck! Any ideas out there. We call the previous owner and leave messages but she never calls back. She originally told us it would be only two weeks or so and that was back in January. I'm thinking we have been duped.

[mammawof3]

While i certainly hope it works out for you, i must say-the same thing happened too us w/a buck-we believed in HONEST breeders, kept getting promises for the papers-over a YEAR ago!!-after we had BRED does, it started to become clear that he had no intention of "coming up" w/promised papers..so, a $200 buck-returned $110 in meat market,..and lots of meat kids..who were "supposed" to be registered...he never came honest w/us... I learned a very good lesson-no papers in my hand-no money in theirs!! Unfortunatly, there are breeders who take advantage of getting higher prices-w/phantom paperwork!!

[Laura Workman]

Small claims court is a very good place to get what you paid for. And you can file in your local jurisdiction, where the defendant will have to appear in order to respond. Plus, you can ask for all damages, including your expenses in keeping a number of goats for a year, and payment for your trouble in keeping the goats, and then disposing of them, including the kids. Oh yeah, and figure out what the loss of a year's worth of breeding cost you. Essentially, ALL your goat expenses, plus your time, for an entire year, plus the value of what you would have had by now if you'd had registered animals, since you are now no closer to your goal of breeding registered animals than you were when you started out. Be reasonable and as accurate as possible, and have as much written backup on your data as possible. Get that all together and then drop the seller a detailed letter outlining the above. She will likely decide that getting her goats registered and providing you with the papers you need is less trouble. If that is the case, give her very specific deadlines for providing written proof of her efforts every step of the way. Copies of completed registration applications sent to the registry, with copies of her postmarked envelopes, would be a good start. Be sure to send your letter certified mail, return receipt requested. Leave her an email and phone message letting her know the letter is coming. Document, document, document.

I do hope your bill of sale has some indication that the animals were registered. If not, I presume there was a verbal assurance that they were? And the price of the animals reflected that? You can use the price to back up your claim.

Don't mean to be nasty or litigous, but you DO have the ability to make life fairly inconvenient and expensive for her if she doesn't produce what she owes you.

[nduetime]

Thanks for the ideas. We did have verbal commitment from her that they were registered/registerable. I can also get the ad she ran when we purchased them.
Keeping my fingers crossed as we do like the doe I guess we can use her for goat meilk for ourselves,soap, and sell the kids for meat. A shame though. Lesson learned the hard way. Prices did reflect registered goats also.

[Laura Workman]

Yup, it's a pretty stinky deal. You might also call the registry and tell them what's going on. They may be able to intervene. That worked for me once. I never had to write a letter, and we're still on decent terms. Another time, different goat situation, I couldn't get any response to phone calls or emails. After I mentioned a suit, amazingly, things were resolved in short order. Guess she didn't want to deal with the long drive to my jurisdiction.

[goatkid]

Hopefully, you'll work things out with the breeder and get the papers. If you can't and still want to register the does, you can have an ADGA member sign a paper that they are Nubians and register them native on appearance. They will get recorded grade papers and can be shown.