Small Animal Swap Meet

Today, the major item on the agenda was to go to a small animal swap meet in Kentucky.  We were really looking forward to something special.  I got up at 5:30 so I could head up to the feed mill early before going to work out, and then our whole family drove an hour to the swap meet after that.

To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.  We got there an hour before it was supposed to end, and things had already been closed up.  We saw pretty much nothing.  I got some information from the lady that runs the whole thing.  She was nice and informative, and to her credit the area where the swap meet was to be held looked clean, well organized, and serene. 

This is what weirded me out:  No where in any of the literature (brochure, flier, website) or in talking to her were any directions given to have some sort of health certificate or vet check done on any animals to be sold.  When taking goats, for example, to a show, there must be a current health certificate completed by a vet for each animal.  There is a vet on site before any animal is allowed on show premises.  Animals can carry lots of diseases, many of them communicable, and nobody wants to have that sort of thing spread to their property when they take their animals to a communal location.

If I took chickens to sell, and my chickens didn't sell but sat in a cage right next to someone's alpacas or goats or whatever, and these animals had some sort of disease, I wouldn't want my chickens to bring those germs back to my property.  I was pretty weird about this when I had goats, too.  I really didn't want to show my goats, even with the precautions of health certificates and vet checks in place, because there are just some things that can be missed on those sorts of cursory checks. 

So, while I have some older hens to move on, and my mom has some guineas that she will need to sell before retiring and traveling to and from Michigan frequently, I don't think this will be the place to do it.  Guess I'm back to the options of Craigslist or butchering them.