India’s First Cat Show
Rudolph, PoC’s cat reporter in Mumbai, India has informed me that India had its first cat show on 27th April 2013. This is what Rudolph says:
Yesterday (Saturday 27-4-2013) was an auspicious day for cat lovers in India as India had its first cat show organized in the city of Bangalore. Thanks to your efforts and my blogging to various people that finally a “cat club” affiliated to the “World Cat Federation” based in Germany has been registered in Bangalore. Hope cat shows are organized in other Indian city’s including my home city of Mumbai….Regards, Rudolph.
India’s first cat show. I believe the lady is Sarah Naseem and her cat is Chil bul. I have published the picture under fair use.
It seems as though the two day show was sponsored by Mars, a giant American company who manufacture Whiskas cat food. The show was called “Whiskas International Cat Show”. Clearly big business can see a way into what will be a massive domestic cat marketplace in years to come.
The show took place at the The Chancery Pavilion, 135, Residency Road, 560 025 Bangalore.
The Indian Cat Federation (is this a new organisation?) organised the show in association with the World Cat Federation based in Germany.
Of course Persians were on show. Persian cats are the predominant purebred cat in India. There were many other breeds too. I’d like to know the types of breeds that were shown.
If PoC had any influence over the creation of an Indian cat fancy, it would be nice. Some time ago I suggested that it would be nice to create the Indian National Cat Club as the first steps in creating a cat fancy. It seems they formed the Indian Cat Federation but perhaps it was there years ago.
The time has now come for all purebred cats in India to be registered so that buyers can be sure their cat is, in fact, purebred. Registering cats ensures that a pedigree is recorded, which in turn ensures that the cat is purebred. However, the Indian cat fancy should always focus on health and character over the appearance registered cats.
I have one question. The International Cat Association (TICA) should be involved. Why aren’t they? TICA is much bigger than the World Cat Federation. Don’t get left behind TICA. India has the potential to have a huge cat fancy.