Cat Breeders

Cat Breeders - lots of cats in a group - the semi-hairless cat top left is a Peterbald cat. The other cats are Oriental Shorthair cats I believe. Photo copyright .m for matthijs. This photo is included because I like it. It has no connection to the posting except that there are lots of little Oriental Shorthair cats all together indicating some breeding has taken place.

Are Cat Breeders in the USA going through a hidden crisis? Is there dissent amongst the ranks of cat breeders? I think there is to a certain degree for at least two reasons. Firstly there are campaigns by organisations such as PETA, HSUS and the various Animal Rights groups against cat breeding. I don't think that these campaigns are against cat breeding totally (i.e. to ban it completely) although I might be wrong. Secondly, some authorities (and I am talking about the USA here) are putting the squeeze on cat breeding by imposing licensing fees etc. In other words a gradual chipping away of the viability of cat breeding may be taking place.

This is placing a strain on the cat breeding community it seems - I could be wrong but I sense this is the case or beginning to be the case. This gradual change in opinion in the US is probably being brought about by the increase in the feral cat population set against the increase in desire to own and create designer type cats. This is a toxic combination. It smacks of consumerism at the expense of animal welfare. There is also the simple fact of economics in dealing with feral cats.

Some cat breeders it seems are keen to take action to fight back. This requires co-ordination and I wonder whether they can achieve this. Cat breeders are individuals who tend to pull in different directions. That is in part why there are too many cat associations making the cat fancy too complicated. That is why there are too many names of cat breeds that differ between the UK, the rest of Europe and USA causing confusion.

Maybe this is a moment in the history of the cat fancy when the people in authority need to pull together and tackle the uncomfortable issues to allow them to move on.

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