This is a rather sparse video representation of an American cat show. This is the bare bones of a cat show.
At first, you can see the huge facility as the show is being set up and then a judge doing his work. The cats are kept in large cages with curtains and other homely items until they are required to enter the show ring.
What you see in the second part of the video is a judge surrounded by cats in the show ring. The judge takes the cats out of smaller cages and describes them in relation to the breed standard to the small audience seated around. These are breeders and visitors.
The judge makes his decision on which cat has won that particular award and also decides lesser placings. The audience applauds. This is a time where you can learn about breed standards and what makes a good example of a particular cat breed.
You can see the judge using what I presume is an alcohol hand cleaner or some other form of hand sanitizer or hand antiseptic to stop the transmission of pathogens from one cat to another. Sometimes breeders forbid visitors touching their cats in their fancy cages before they go into the show ring to avoid transmission of zoonotic diseases.
The way this particular judge handles the cats indicates years of show cat handling. You’ll note how passive and well behaved the cats are. Sometimes a cat will do something that is not in the script. On one occasion I remember a cat escaping from his cage. He was chased around the cat show facility. He had to be caught, and fast. This was a bit undignified but it is what you’d expect of a cat.
Cat breeders see purebred cats as ornamental vases 😉 You said it and it is basically true. It is a nice analogy. Appearance is almost everything for lots of cat breeders. This is what is wrong. We shouldn’t be breeding cats at all if we are really honest.
Interesting – well filmed. It’s always awkward to look at cats being objectified by humans like as if they were a nice vase or a fancy teapot on the antiques roadshow. I find it uncomfortable when any living thing including humans are objectified as such. The process bothers me. It exists. I just don’t find myself able to enjoy it per se.
It is noisy. I do remember the general background noise well and the noise outside from the wind. Helmi photographed the cats in a side room where she set up her photo studio. The lighting in the side room was very dull but the Flip camcorder coped admirably with it I think. They are great camcorders. Shame Cisco stopped making them. All the F1 Savannah cat videos of Magic and Titan were made on a Flip camcorder.
I am pleased you found it interesting. Although it is short and sparse I think it conveys what an American cat show is like. The ones I went to were all held in these functional facilities with high ceilings. Quite noisy.
It is a bit rough. I wish we could of heard what he said, but the video was excellent. I have only seen cat shows on tv and on YouTube.
Thanks Michael for this excellent video that briefly demonstrates a cat show and the method of judging. This video is beneficial to viewers like me in India who have never ever been to a “Cat Show”. I have visited numerous “Dog Shows” in India having myself owned a prize winning dacshund and find some similarity in both, only difference is that the cat is a smaller animal and is not paraded in the show ring on a leash unlike dogs.