I realise that I am hammering away at the same old problem but we have to because change is needed and it’s not happening. I feel sorry for the cat of course. The coat is far too long for the cat to maintain. It requires human intervention regularly. The coat on this particular modern Persian is exceptionally long. It’ll be a nightmare to maintain and to avoid matting.
The face is abnormally flat causing tear duct overflow and breathing issues. I remember one Persian cat owner saying that her cat couldn’t eat properly because he inhaled the food while he ate. It was really distressing for her. When I see this cat I don’t see beauty, I see abject failure; failure in people to regulate their relationship with the domestic cat properly. A failure to focus on health over appearance.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1081401674818715648
And 35% of all modern Persians suffer from PKD – polycystic kidney disease. Unbelievable but true apparently. A total failure in cat breeding in my view and common sense tells us that this cat should never have been allowed by the cat associations. It is an exercise in self-indulgence. It is cat cruelty basically.
There’ll be people who say this cat is beautiful etc.. I have to accept that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but where there is a lack of functionality and inbuilt ill-health there cannot be beauty. Nature creates beauty. The domestic cat is beautiful as nature created her. Human intervention does not improve nature and often, as is evident here, makes things a lot worse.
To be brutally honest, there is no place for cat breeding in the modern world as there are too many unwanted cats. You can’t justify it. I’d like to hear someone try. I like pedigree cats as much as anyone else. Some breeds are beautiful such as the Maine Coon but even this most popular breed has inbuilt health issues which is not the case with random bred cats. What I mean is that breeders of Maine Coons have increased the prevalence of certain diseases over the norm.
Let’s deal with the unwanted cat problem before we allow ourselves the self-indulgence of playing God with the domestic cat through selective breeding. For me the domestic cat world is too sloppy. There is not enough rigour in it through a greater concern for their health and welfare. People too casually accept the suffering of animals.
Perhaps I set too high a standard but I don’t think so. Perhaps I am too ready to see failure and ignore the successes. I don’t think so because there are thousands of pages celebrating the domestic cat in this site. Despite countless thousands of great cat guardians doing a great job, the overall standard of cat ‘ownership’ remains too low.
The flat-faced Persian is an example of that failure. P.S. This cat appears to be irritated by something on his/her lips but is unable to alleviate it. What is it I wonder?
Brutal solution but deserved and I’d bring marshmallows.