Cat Breeding Coordination

Why do I sense that there is a need for some cat breeding coordination? It seems to me that there is a need for proper leadership in the cat fancy. It is too weak and laissez faire. There are many symptoms of this but the classic ones are concerned with, for example, the problems encountered by breeders of Bengal cats with the genetic disease HCM.

There is a desperate need for all breeders to be obliged to have their lines tested for HCM in order to gradually eradicate the disease from the breed as a whole. But individual Bengal cat breeders are doing the ethical thing and testing and some are not. To not test shows a callous disregard for the cat. And if a breeder does not care for the cat's welfare at a fundamental level then that breeder should not be breeding. Further it is against the Bengal breed as a whole.

I argue that there is a need for a coordinating hand, someone to guide, direct and enforce, yes enforce testing and organising a database. It can't be that difficult surely? Breeders will naturally pull in different directions and some will behave more ethically than others. That is the nature of humankind, of course. But in order to make the control and management of HCM in Bengal cats work and be effective we cannot leave it to Bengal cat breeders to work together. It simply won't happen.

If the associations step back and do nothing they are complicit in breeding unhealthy cats who will suffer. To do nothing knowing that there is a problem implicates them and makes them just as culpable. Come on, cat breeding coordination is needed urgently.



Cat Breeding Coordination to Cat Facts