Leading cat association Fédération Internationale Féline bans Russian cats from competition

Here is the announcement from the FIFe website:

Twitter and Instagram have announced that Russian-bred cats have been banned from international competition following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And no Russian-bred cat can be imported and registered in its pedigree book outside Russia.

China’s version of Twitter, Weibo, is alive with comment about Russian cats being banned. It’s definitely gone viral in China. Russia is being banned from a lot of things across the globe in various sectors primarily business and financial but the sanctions against Russia have now extended to purebred, pedigree cats.

Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe) is a leading cat association in Europe. I immediately went to their website to verify the social media postings. And it’s clear that the administrators of this cat association have decided to do something tangible in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine with the incumbent destruction of property and slaughter of innocents.

I think it best to quote them verbatim (selected parts) so we have it completely right:

“The FIFe Executive Board is shocked and horrified that the army of the Russian Federation invaded the Republic of Ukraine and started a war.

We are extremely happy that many members of FIFe clubs bordering Ukraine, such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Moldova, are lending a helping hand to their Ukrainian breeder friends.

The Board of FIFe feels it cannot just witness these atrocities and do nothing, so it decided that as of 01.03.2022: No cat bred in Russia may be imported and registered in any FIFe pedigree book outside Russia, regardless of, which organization issued its pedigree. No cat belonging to exhibitors living in Russia may be entered at any FIFe show outside Russia, regardless of, which organization these exhibitors hold their membership in. These restrictions are valid until 31.05.2022 and will be reviewed as and when necessary.”

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They decided that they cannot witness the destruction and chaos caused by Russia’s aggression and have sanctioned Russian breeders. They have done their bit. And the board of FiFe also decided that they will dedicate a part of their budget to support cat breeders and cat fanciers in Ukraine as they suffer because of this shocking aggression which has staggered the world.

They will consult with their Ukrainian FiFe member Ukrainian Felinology Union (UFU), together with members in other countries to see how best they can move forward in achieving their goal.

No doubt this is a unique action by a cat association. It must be a world first. The story must prompt the next question: will the big American cat associations the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) and The International Cat Association (TICA) do something similar? They could do it and fall in line with President Biden’s recent pronouncements. These two American cat associations are more powerful than the European associations because the American cat fancy is the biggest in the world. It would be nice to see them take similar action. Everyone needs to do their bit to punish Putin.

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He actually needs to be removed in any way possible. I’m afraid to say that he needs to be killed by somebody because what he is doing may lead to destruction and devastation which is far worse than we are seeing currently.

Postscript: The Russian cat fancy is big. They have very many dedicated and highly competent cat breeders. They like to breed very large Maine Coon cats. Russia has its own purebred pedigree cat, the Russian Blue. They also have a hairless cat: the Don Sphynx. And they have their Kurilian bobtail. There is no doubt that the breeders will be hurt by this.