Cats Protection ran a survey and reported on 6 April 2023 that “38% of cats acquired in 2022 (600,000 cats) were pedigrees such as Ragdolls or Scottish Folds while 47% (or 750,000 cats) were moggies”.
They say that that is the narrowest gap between the adoption of purebred cats and random-bred cats in living memory. In other words, more people are selecting purebred cats when they want to adopt a cat than a moggy.
And as moggies are nearly always adopted from rescue centres, and as purebred cats are very rarely adopted from rescue centres, this points to people buying purebred cats from breeders more often nowadays than in the past. It appears that Brits are shunning the humble, moggie rescue cat which is a bad trend but unsurprising.
Reason for changing attitudes
They say that this is a worrying trend. I agree with them. They go on to explain the trend. Twenty-nine percent of people who adopted a cat said they chose to do so because they could get social media likes. Yes, that is a modern reason. Not for companionship and all the usual reasons of the past.
Comment: they wanted to adopt a good-looking cat in order to open a social media account such as on TikTok to post videos of their day-to-day life and attract some followers and possibly attract some money as well. This is what I expected actually.
Just 5% of moggy cat adopters wanted to open a social media account to show off their cat. And 31% of purebred cat owners setup a social media account after I presume adopting the cat compared to 7% of moggy owners.
social media
Comment: this then is the power of social media and the desire for celebrity from cat owners. I have mentioned it before. A lot of people try to achieve celebrity vicariously through their attractive cat. The favourite breed to achieve this is probably the Maine Coon. The next favourite is probably the Scottish Fold. Taylor Swift made the Scottish Fold more popular. She did the world a disservice because this cat breed is inherently unhealthy sometimes seriously so.
Health issues
The Maine Coon, too, has some serious health problems regrettably for such a beautiful cat. And on the topic of health, almost 47% of pedigree cat owners reported that their cat had been diagnosed with a health issue. In comparison, 29% of random-bred cat owners reported a health issue. This points to something we know already namely that random bred cats are in general healthier than purebred cats because they are not selectively bred.
They discovered that 10% of the purebred cats has respiratory disorders versus 3% moggies and 6% of purebred cats had arthritis compared to 2% of moggies. Obesity was present in 7% of purebred cats versus 3% of moggies. The last statistic is interesting. It implies that owners of purebred cats are feeding their cats more than owners of moggies and/or because they have to keep the purebred cat inside full-time, they are failing to exercise them properly. This last point is very important.
Behavioural issues
I’m surprised at the findings of Cat Protection in this regard. They state that pedigree cats were more likely to chew household cables (13%) compared to moggies (7%). They also state that purebred cats were more often aggressive to family and guests (14%) compared to moggies (6%). And it appears that the purebred cat is more likely to be anxious because they state that they are more likely to hide (18%) compared to moggies (12%). I presume that last statistic refers to the time soon after adoption when the cat is in a new place and therefore naturally anxious. But it appears that the purebred cat is more likely to be anxious.
Veterinary bill
Thirty-nine percent of purebred, pedigree cat owners said that their veterinary bill came to more than £500 annually compared to 12% of moggy cat owners. Comment: people should factor in vet bills for purebred cats! I suspect that this high figure is due to inherited and chronic illnesses associated with purebred cats due to selective breeding.
Purchase of cat
Cats Protection say that 64% of adopters paid a fee of between £101 and £2,000 for their purebred cat. The first figure of £101 strongly indicates that many are not adopting a purebred cat. My impression is that a lot of people adopt a purebred mix cat thinking that it is a purebred cat. It is not. It is a moggy. A lot of purebred mix cats are advertised online as they try to give the impression that a purebred mix is similar to a purebred cat but they simply are not. It’s a lie basically. They are trying to get people to adopt a cat under false pretenses.
Campaign
Because of social media, more people are adopting purebred cats in the UK which is good for the breeders and bad for the moggies. I think it is a bad trend generally because it points to the fact that less rescue cats are being adopted from shelters. Rescue cats need homes more than purebred cats as the latter don’t exist until bred by breeders. It is immoral to bred cats when unwanted cats are languishing at shelters. That’s obvious.
Cats Protection agree with me and they have launched a campaign called “More Than Just a Moggy” to remind people of the benefits that moggies bring to homes. They state that “it is clear that pedigrees are becoming more and more in vogue [and] breeds such as Persians, Sphynxes and Scottish folds might be trendy, but these cats generally come with a higher price tag and a greater risk of health and welfare problems.”
They add that moggies are less expensive to acquire and also to maintain. In return they offer the same amount of love and companionship. They encourage people to adopt a moggy from a shelter such as theirs.
Some staff at Cats Protection resigning over the organisation’s kill policy
