The domestication of the cat is an ongoing process. Domestication still takes place. The domestic cat is still very close to the wild cat in terms of behaviour and its genetic make up because, it is believed, that about 15 or 20 genes separate domestic cats from their wild relatives.
Dr John Bradshaw1 of Bristol University states:
“It is probably the smallest difference there is genetically between a domestic animal and its wild counterpart.”
He goes on to state that it wouldn’t take much to reverse the process, stall it or upset it.
The castration of good well raised middle-class domestic cats means they can’t produce offspring but wild tomcats can. Result? Lower numbers of domesticated cats.
Dr Bradshaw poses the theory that in the United Kingdom, in some places, as many as 99% of male cats are neutered. Obviously neutered cats can’t procreate. The only cats who can procreate are feral cats or stray cats in the process of becoming feral cats, of which there are an estimated 1,000,000. You hardly see them. I never see them! But they are there, unowned tomcats who are whole and healthy. They have not been castrated and as a consequence they desire to procreate and they succeed. By doing so they pass on their less domesticated genetic make up to their offspring. Bit by bit, the theory goes, the domestic cat becomes less domesticated; the evolutionary process of domestication is reversed.
The domestic cat is chosen because he or she is docile and has learned to become sociable and live in human households whereas the feral cat has completely different attributes, namely, a high proficiency in hunting and fighting and staying away from humans.
I can see the argument. It makes sense and is logical but I wonder whether it is a genuine problem or simply a theoretical problem. If Dr Bradshaw is correct it should be a wake up call to more intensive government managed trap-neuter-release (TNR) programmes.
The photo above is of Adele a feral kitten looked after by Bob Tucker in the USA.
The Perfect Domestic Cat?
On a different note, because there is such a small number of genes which make the difference between wild cats and domestic cats it might not be too hard in theory to breed the perfect cat.
The argument behind this proposition is this. Dr Bradshaw believes that about 7 or 8 genes affect the behaviour of the domestic cat. These are inherited behavioural traits. Behaviour is of course also affected by environmental issues in the early stages of a cat’s life.
Scientists will be able, in the not too distant future, to know what these genes do and thereby identify the friendliest cats genetically.
Once they are able to do that they will be able to selectively breed (or create in a laboratory) for the perfect cat. My immediate thoughts about this not good. I don’t like interfering with nature and you can see how this could all go wrong. In theory, it should go right but humankind has a tendency to abuse this sort of information in furtherance of its own self interests.
Dr Bradshaw is more optimistic. He says that selecting cats genetically for their friendly traits would mean that people would be able to select cats that are more suited to modern urban living. More and more people are living in the urban environment which is less suited to the domestic cat than the country environment. The urban cat needs to be more domesticated in order to be less stressed. There will be many more full-time indoor cats in the UK. People owe it to the domestic cats to ensure that they are suited to modern human living. That’s the argument. What do you think?
Note: 1 Dr Bradshaw wrote the book: Cat Sense: The Feline Enigma Revealed (ISBN-13: 978-1846145940).
My observation on the thoughtless and undiscerning spaying and neutering campaigns of Kyrenia Animal Rescue, is that when you get the gardener to weed your garden you don’t expect him to cut down your prize rose bushes too. That is an exact parallel with sterilising rare and endangered random-bred and naturally occurring Turkish Angoras and Turkish Vans just because they do not walk around with a pedigree stuck on them. In the Middle East and Anatolia virtually all cats are random bred and free-born but that doesn’t prevent some of them from being very pure Angoras. There is no other source for the true Turkish Angora. Once they are spayed and neutered into extinction, that’s it. You can’t re-stock the whole Middle East from cat fancy Angoras because they are not Angoras. They are a cat fancy concoction of mixed West European and American breeds. First the White Rhino, then the Florida Panther , and then the Turkish Angora. May their misdeeds lie heavily on their shoulders.
Well I’m doing my best to counter all the negative things that other people do with cats and other creatures. It’s all due to a complete misunderstanding of the situation. They have no idea that the cats they sterilise are rare and endangered Angoras of the purest kind. This is a consequence of the mindset of the cat fancy whereby a cat only has value and purity if it has a pedigree as long as your arm. Nothing could be further from the truth. Analysis of the data on cat fancy pedigree Angoras produces the disgraceful result that on average they retain only 5.995% of the original Anatolian genetic identity. The random-bred Angoras in Cyprus and Turkey can be as pure as 98% and no pedigree in sight! Happily some people are taking note of this situation. In early July 4 of my Angora kittens will be going to breeders in Germany who were involved in the importation of the very first Angoras from Turkey in modern times which founded the breed in the west. They are fully aware that their lovely cats were then unscrupulously out-crossed to anything and everything. It looks like they wish to start over again, hopefully this time in a different way. Nobody could ask for more docile or friendly cats than the mothers of these kittens booked for Germany, so it’s saving an endangered breed plus passing on good behaviour genes for future generations.
A really interesting article however I think its unlikely to happen in our lifetime if at all. There still appears to be a lot of people out there who just don’t realise its in the cats best interest to get them neutered.
Only quite recently have we had a very persistent un-neutered Ginger and White Tom visit us taking an interest in our Honey. He is friendly and looks healthy in the only way an un-neutered cat can which is never the same type of healthy as one that is neutered.
Poor Walter.
He needs to go the “Cat Land of Plenty” where treats grow on trees and bushes, pate is topsoil, and kibble is sprinkled from the sky.
He’ll never go hungry in my imagination.
Jozef wouldn’t share with Walter?
Maybe there would be leftovers for Walt.
Fascinating comment Harvey. The real Turkish Angoras are under threat in a way. Horrible. I don’t want that.
Neutering is considered a necessity but there are some unforeseen negative consequences. Always are when people interfere with nature.