What affects us affects cats
“Inbreeding depression” is a euphemism for a general lack of health in an individual purebred cat which has been selectively bred (using artificial selection) for appearance, which automatically incorporates inbreeding. Cat breeders often have to inbreed their purebred cats in order to fix their appearance. This is because the appearance is held on a …
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 …
This is an overview. The last question in the title above is the most important. Whether you become a cat breeder or not is a personal choice, but you must realise that you are bringing into the world a sentient being where there are already unwanted sentient beings of the same species which have …
“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 visit German websites to see what the Germans have to say about cats and …
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 am not against cat breeding. But I am for high levels of responsibility in …
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 have too many cats in shelters. We don’t need to artificially create more. However, …
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 ramped up on the news that the Kennel Club has revised its guidelines for …
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 the contemporary Persian cats and the French bulldogs. They both suffer from the same …
