It has been suggested that cat association breed standards might be encouraging breeders to select breeding cats with genetic traits that promote an overweight physique in order to meet the breed standard. There is a very interesting article on the … continue reading…
“The most active discussion on adverse breeding effects in companion animals has been in the German speaking community” (The Welfare of Cats page 261 – a section written by A Steiger). It is nice to venture into other areas and … continue reading…
My message to Vicky Fisher, the president The International Cat Association (TICA): I am surprised that we have not heard from you about banning Russian-bred cats from your cat shows in Europe or worldwide. You should ban them. It is … continue reading…
Selective cat breeding is what cat breeding is all about. So, what is it? This is an outline discussion. It is slightly controversial in keeping with my slightly rebellious nature. Before I continue, I would like to say that I … continue reading…
These are the purebred cat breed registrations at the number one cat association in the UK – the GCCF – over the period 1988 to 2010 to which I have compared the 2020 figures. They are published with the association’s … continue reading…
I first wrote about criticising the Cat Fanciers’ Association about 12 years ago or more. That criticism concerning the ‘Twisty Cat’ can be seen in the second part of this page. In the first part I want to also mention … continue reading…
This page is in two parts. The second part, half way down the page, I wrote about 12 years ago. In that section you can tell that I dislike the idea of cat breeding for the simple reason that we … continue reading…
The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) has been under pressure for decades to revise the breed standard i.e. the guidelines, for the flat-faced cat breeds namely the Exotic Shorthair, the Persian and the Himalayan. I hope that the pressure has been … continue reading…
This is another interesting cat show photo from a different era. It shows a blue Persian cat of the traditional style (doll-face). His name is Patrick of Allington. Cat fanciers love their fancy names and rightly so. His attractive female … continue reading…
This an image from times gone by. It is a photo of Mrs H. Cattermole, a cat show judge, judging Sealeigh Grey Knight. The cat looks like a moggie. She wears a white coat as if she is behind the … continue reading…
Possibly the first cat show was held during the time of William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) at St. Giles’ Fair in Winchester, England in 1598. I had always believed that the first show was at Crystal … continue reading…
Jemima Harrison is the founder of the Campaign for the Responsible Use of Flat-Faced Animals (CRUFFA). It started in December 2015 with the aim, as I understand it, of stopping the breeding of flat-faced companion animals. The two paradigms are … continue reading…
“Breeding true” means that the offspring look like their parents. It is achieved by “line breeding” which is a form of inbreeding which ideally does not transfer undesirable traits together with those traits that the breeder wants such as the … continue reading…
Some websites confidently state that the world’s oldest cat breed is the Egyptian Mau but I disagree with the authors of these websites. Before you decide the world’s oldest cat breed you have to decide what a ‘cat breed’ is. … continue reading…
This is a story from the early days of the cat fancy when things were not quite so sophisticated. At the Crystal Palace cat show of 1900 the ‘Madagascar Cat’ was exhibited in the foreign class. I guess the ‘foreign … continue reading…
