I have just written an article about a hefty Maine Coon who was bred to extreme with a hint of gargoyle by their creator. Not God but a Maine Coon breeder. I’ve mentioned God because gargoyles are attached to the outside of large and imposing cathedrals to ward off evil spirits and make the building look more attractive.
Selective breeding can sometimes make breeds less attractive because they don’t quite know the outcome. They have an idea but there is an element of potluck in breeding cats. There must be many failures particularly when they breed cats to extreme to try and create outstanding facial features. What happens to the failures? Culled?
In distorting and exaggerating facial anatomy you not only jeopardise the health of the cat you also risk creating an animal who is distinctly uglier than the original. Gargoyles are meant to be ugly, Persian cats are not but that’s what they’ve become to many but not the administrators of the cat associations who for some peculiar reason see the flat-faced (peke) Persian as ‘pansy like’, like a charming flower.
I see a gargoyle and a sick one to boot.
The right eye is weeping a lot. It is inflamed. I don’t know the cause, but it is probably linked to blocked tear ducts causing tear duct overflow and the development of a bacterial infection. If you distort the anatomy, you can get health problems. This has happened in many cat breeds, even the best.
The Maine Coon I have referred to in the first paragraph can be seen below. There is a mere hint of gargoyle in this Maine Coon. The Persian is a living gargoyle.
And it isn’t just what we see, the exterior of the animal which has gone wrong, but the interior and the health issues. Both the Maine Coon and the Persian carry inherited genetic mutations which lead to serious health issues in both these top three cat breeds. The worst of it is the PKD, which around 30% of Persian cats contract.
It is very sad for me that this had happened. Made worse by the leaders of the cat fancy, the administrators of the cat associations who accept it all against their declared policies. Are they ever going to do something about it such as change the breed standard and enforce the new standard?
Look at the traditional Persian and the old original Persians:
I hate that with German Shepherds. It looks horrible and distorted. Breeders are an insensitive and in general ignorant lot. How many newborn kittens and puppies are immediately killed because they turned out to be the wrong ‘type’ (appearance)? This sort of info rarely leaks out. And to breed from a deleterious genetic mutation which makes the cat unhealthy but interesting to look at is immoral.
Breeders are irresponsible. Take the German Shepherd dog, it’s back legs are shorter and hunched today, they look almost disabled from the dog years ago and don’t get me started on pugs and chihuahuas and bull dogs. They’ve made flat faced cats that can barely breath, it’s horrible.