UK – MSN News – OPINION/NEWS: I don’t have hard details but enough to circulate this cat news and add a comment. Someone attempted to smuggle an F1 female Savannah cat into the UK. A female F1 is the daughter of a serval cat and a domestic cat hence F1 or first filial (first generation). She is therefore a wild cat hybrid. The cat was picked up by Border Control and considered too wild to go to a home. The cat was taken to a wildlife park where an enclosure is being built. That may be a bad move because this is a domestic cat. She should not be in a zoo.
The Border Forces’ actions is in a reference to the current law in the UK concerning owning wild cat hybrids and wild cats which care considered dangerous. Click this link to read more on this if you wish.
The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 bans the possession of F1 Savannah cats in the UK unless the local authority grants a license and there will be conditions attached to a license. This is very different to the USA where a lot of the states (but not all of them) allow first filial wild cat hybrids to be owned by the public.
This Act is peculiar because it considers e.g. F1 black-footed hybrids acceptable. The black-footed cat is very aggressive. I don’t see the logic in the way the act is drafted.
F1 Savannah cats are acceptable in the UK without a license (see section (c) above). I can understand the reasons behind the law but the F1 Savannah cat, if properly socialised, is not dangerous. These cats are large and can be a handful because they are very active and smart. It is almost like living with a domesticated wild cat. They are popular in the US. They cost more than the story states. The cost upwards of $20,000. The world’s tallest domestic cat was and perhaps still is Magic, a female F1 Savannah cat made famous in a video I made of her. You can see the video by clicking on this link. Click this link for a page on living with wild cat hybrids.
Below is a picture I took of Martin Stucki and F1 Savannah kitten Focus, a great cat who was growing up while I stayed at the Stucki’s home. The Stuckis no longer own A1 Savannahs in Oklahoma (a Savannah cat breeder), by the way.
SOME MORE ON THE SAVANNAH CAT:
