Friday, 20 September 2024
List with links to 14 diseases inherited by the Peke-face Persian (infographic)
Wednesday, 11 September 2024
The most obvious inherited health issues of the Peke-face Persian: BAS.
Sunday, 8 September 2024
America's top 2 cat associations should be ashamed of the Peke-face Persian
Saturday, 7 September 2024
The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) are accused of cat cruelty by me over the Peke-face Persian
P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.
Friday, 6 September 2024
Time for the cat fancy to do something about the Persian cat's polycystic kidney disease
Update: Some cat associations such as the UK's Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) require breeding Persians to be screened for the PKD gene defect. Langford Veterinary Diagnostics have documented a decreasing prevalence of the PKD gene in Persians in the UK, from ~28% in 2005 to ~2% in 2016, showing how effective this type of targeted intervention can be. - quote from the following study: Persian cats under first opinion veterinary care in the UK: demography, mortality and disorders.
Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Flat-faced Persians bought for social media 'likes' are being abandoned
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RSPCA campaign against the flat-faced Persian in which they tell the truth about the breed. Image: RSPCA. |
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Punch-face Persian. |
Sunday, 25 December 2022
Infographic highlights 5 Persian cat health issues caused by misguided cat associations
The title and the infographic says it all. Breeders of contemporary, peke-faced (flat-faced) Persian cats with extreme facial features have destroyed the cat's health. They have taken away the perfect feline anatomy that was present in the original 'normal' Persian cat around 50 years ago and replaced it with distorted anatomy because of years of misguided but formally sanctioned (by the cat associations) selective breeding. It is horrible.
Wednesday, 13 April 2022
1901 Persian Cat vs 2009 Persian Cat
I'd like to refer you to two pages on PoC that discuss the Persian cat and its development:
And I'd also like to refer to DOMESTIC AND FANCY CATS - A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THEIR VARIETIES, BREEDING, MANAGEMENT AND DISEASE (1901) by John Jennings who was an experienced show cat judge of the time.
Mr Jennings says this of the Persian show cat of his era:
"The ears should be somewhat small. The head should be small for the size of the car. The body should be long and rounding. The Persian should scale 8lb to 10lb."The CFA standard for the Persian at 2012 says:
"HEAD: round and massive, with great breadth of skull...EARS: small. When viewed in profile, the prominence of the eyes is apparent and the forehead, nose, and chin appear to be in vertical alignment...BODY: of cobby type, low on the legs, broad and deep through the chest, equally massive across the shoulders and rump."I don't have to add a comment save to say that the long, elegant 1901 Persian cat has become a somewhat dumpy, flat-faced rounded cat of more extreme proportions.
Associated: Traditional Persian Cat.
Persian Cat and the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals
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European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals. States signed and ratified in green. |
In not agreeing to this excellent document, they appear to have allowed the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) to continue breeding flat-faced "ultra-type" or "hyper-type" Persian cats despite the GCCF declaring they would take steps to control this (see below).
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Flat-faced Persian illustrating the GCCF page on this cat breed. |
It is disappointing to note that the UK, a country seen as a nation of animal lovers, failed to sign up to an agreement that protects animals. People don't in general know about this fundamental failure. We have to ask whether the British really are animal lovers.
At Article 5 the convention refers to the vexed question of ethical breeding. The eurocrats have done something very good here. They have decided that sometimes breeders of purebred cats and dogs breed to extreme when over-focusing on appearance to the detriment of health.
Here is Article 5:
In short and in layperson's language: when breeding cats and other animals there should be a concern for the cat's health and behavior. Common sense. The Convention simply requires responsible breeding.
As a consequence of the convention and resolution, the GCCF agreed in a declaration (March 1995 - almost 20 years ago) that they would "take necessary measures to control the breeding of animals with genetic or phenotypic characteristics harmful to the welfare of the animals in order to prevent suffering of such animals."
You only have to see the Persians on their website today (May 2012) to conclude that the GCCF still support the breeding of extreme Persians. Can someone tell me why? Have I missed something?
Tuesday, 25 January 2022
Are hairless cats really envious of longhair cats?
The title is amusing when you see the video. This couple of hairless cats are so committed to grooming the white Persian that you would be forgiven for believing that they were envious of her hair. I don't think it's true. The emotion of envy is a human one. The desire to groom a friend of yours, if you are a cat, is a strong motivator. You probably know that it is called allogrooming.
If a cat is envious of another cat because they have hair, the cat who experiences the emotion of envy must recognise the fact that they don't have hair. In order to recognise that simple fact they have to be self-aware. They have to be self-conscious. And this is one of those massive debates. People aren't sure whether cats are self-conscious.
This means a person or animal: recognises themselves objectively and can assess themselves compared to others. At the moment people are unsure that cats can do this. They probably can't. If that is true then it confirms what I have said that cats don't feel envy and these two hairless cats are not envious of this beautiful Persian cat's fur.
2 hairless cats lick a white Persian with zeal. Screenshot. |
Some people say that it is a form of dominance but I don't really believe that. It's a question of friendly interactions. Cats do it to people all the time as you know. They do it for the same reason: friendliness.
This couple of Sphynx cats are certainly committed. They carry on even when there is a miniature crash helmet on the head of the Persian. I find that a bit odd, I confess. Surely these hairless cats recognise that they are no longer licking a cat's hair?
But apparently not. It looks as if the behaviour is entirely instinctive. Perhaps they lick the crash helmet because it's a bit like licking their own bodies. I think that is the reason behind this behaviour. They accept the hairlessness of the helmet; no questions asked.
Saturday, 4 September 2021
33 rescued purebred Persian cats are available for adoption from MSPCA-Angell
MSPCA-Angell is the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Centre. It is a long title and they find themselves in the extraordinary position of having 33 rescued purebred flat-faced Persian cats for adoption to the public.
The MSPCA at Nevins Farm are in the process of identifying adopters for these purebred Persian cats. They were surrendered to the organisation from a central Massachusetts home on August 23.
The reason why they are available and were rescued is because the cats, primary caregiver passed away leaving a man (husband?) to take care of the cats and he couldn't manage. They say that he quickly realised he could not meet their needs. I would have to argue with that because if he had quickly realised he couldn't do the job then they wouldn't have ended up so matted and in such a poor state in terms of their dirty coats and general health. So, the man took too long about it sadly but he agreed to surrender them to their adoption centre.
CLICK FOR A PAGE ON THE PERSIAN
They say that many of them are previous show cats and several of them were imported from Italy. Over the two weeks that they've been in the care of MSPCA-Angell they have undergone treatment for various ailments and their coats have been de-matted by shaving and grooming. There was suffering from upper respiratory infections and dental health issues. Their coats were matted and dirty, as mentioned. The living environment was cluttered and crowded.
They suggest that the cats need good care from now on but it is unusual, I would say that it is unique, for a rescue organisation to have 33 purebred cats, some of them show cats, up for adoption to the public. I don't think the public will have a better chance to adopt a contemporary Persian cat from a rescue than this one.
The age of the cats varies from 5 to 12 years old. As mentioned, these are contemporary Persian cats with flat faces. Not everybody likes this extreme form of breeding and they can have inherited health issues such as breathing problems, tear duct overflow and on my research, 35% of Persian cats suffer from polycystic kidney disease. I would ask about that when adopting.
Thursday, 15 July 2021
Picture of a googly-eyed Persian cat
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Googly-eyed cat |
Sunday, 27 June 2021
Brachycephalic Persian cat with bulging eyes can have corneal problems
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Brachycephalic Persian cat with bulging eyes and flat face. Photo: Irina Gerasimova. |
And of course, the cornea is exposed anyway as it sticks out so far. This contributes to 'exposure keratitis' and it is said probably contributes to corneal sequestrum development (the development of an opaque, dark brown to black plaque on the cornea). Persian cats are predisposed to this.
Exposure keratitis also occurs in people and it is described as a medical condition affecting the cornea of eyes which can lead to corneal ulceration and permanent loss of vision due to corneal opacity. Normally the cornea is kept moist by blinking and during sleep it is covered by the eyelids. When the cornea is exposed to the air, it can cause increased evaporation of tear from the corneal surface leading to dryness of the corneal surface. This can lead to corneal epithelial damage based on my research on Wikipedia.
I'm not saying that this particular, individual in the photograph is going to have problems with their cornea. I wouldn't say that. I'm just commenting generally about this desire to create flat-faced brachycephalic Persian and Exotic Shorthair cats with these bulging eyes.
I think you will find that the majority of the public would like to see the breed standards of the Persian and Exotic Shorthair 'detuned' by which I mean made less extreme so that the breeders follow guidance which doesn't drive them to creating unhealthy cats which arguably look less attractive than the traditional Persian. I think you will find that the vast majority of the public prefer the appearance of the traditional Persian over the contemporary variant. So, there's no need to breed cats like this in the first place.
Perhaps the problem is that the cat fancy is too inward-looking. Perhaps they should conduct a poll with the public and ask them what they think. They may have been encouraged to breed cats like this because the Persian has been very popular for many years but they have gradually drifted into this extreme look without, I believe, touching base with the public on the issue as to whether this was a wise thing to do. It has taken the cat fancy around 60 years to create this strange appearance.
Monday, 14 June 2021
Dracula cat became a celebrity because of her grossly misaligned jaw
Am I the only one who doesn't get this? Why do people make what appears to be a poorly bred, black Persian cat with a misaligned jaw a celebrity? I have never seen an undershot jaw so pronounced as this and in my view it is a case of poor cat breeding.
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Poorly bred Persian cat with grossly misaligned jaw is a social media celebrity. Photo: Instagram. |
Two people found this cat on the New York streets we are told and they rescued her. I'm guessing, which I fully admit, but it seems to me that somebody has bred, perhaps informally, a Persian cat and it has gone horribly wrong so they abandoned the cat on the streets.
I don't think a cat breeder produced this cat. Perhaps somebody adopted a Persian from a cat breeder that was unsterilized and they bred from her. I don't know the history so I'm guessing wildly but this is a flat-faced, brachycephalic cat, which is exactly what Persians are.
But what sets this cat apart from any other is this horribly misaligned jaw and I just don't get why that warrants this cat becoming a celebrity. Humans are celebrating a deformity which is very sad for the cat although I'm sure she doesn't feel any pain or discomfort but it may affect her eating. We shouldn't celebrate human mistakes. We don't put humans who suffer from some sort of skeletal deformity on a pedestal and chatter about them with enthusiasm!
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Princess Monster Truck! A feel sad for her. She should live a quiet, enjoyable life out of the limelight. Photo: Instagram |
I have seen many Exotic Shorthair cats with this jaw deformity. These are shorthaired Persians. They are very closely related to the Persian. The most famous was Lil Bub. What is the obsession with misaligned jaws in cats? Is it the Dracula look? I think it is.
They have given her the name Princess Monster Truck, which I can't understand either. They've even claimed intellectual property rights over the name. I wouldn't bother to try and protect the copyright of that name because it bloody awful.
Saturday, 1 May 2021
Jacqueline Fernandez meditates on the balcony of her apartment in Mumbai with Bengal cat in background
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Jacqueline Fernandez and her white Persian showing tear staining due to tear duct overflow. Photo: Instagram. |
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Fernandez mediating on her flat balcony with her Bengal cat. Photo: Instagram. |
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Yoda, I believe, a pointed Persian with a flat-face (Himalayan). Photo: Instagram. |
Note: embedded videos or photos on this site are typically made by people other than me and held on YouTube servers or the servers of other businesses (not the server storing this website). Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened I apologise but I have no control over it.
Saturday, 6 February 2021
Kate Beckinsale dances in a sports bra for her chinchilla Persian cat Willow
Judging by her Instagram account, as far as I can tell, Kate Beckinsale lives with two Persian cats and a brown, fluffy toy dog. The Persian cats appear to be a chinchilla Persian which is near white with some grey streaks and a grey tabby. They are both what I would call contemporary, flat-faced, punch-face, Persian cats. She likes to dress them up and make them look pretty.
She lives in a very nice modern home and last Friday the actress, 47, posted on her Instagram page a video of herself dancing in her kitchen to Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl". She was wearing a Niki sports bra and some fancy sweatpants over some fancy underwear which she flashed in copious quantities. Perhaps it wasn't underwear but it kinda looks like that.
Her beautiful little Persian cat Willow was, as expected, completely disinterested in Kate Beckinsale's attempts to stimulate some sort of excitement in her. Persian cats are well known to be rather inactive. Sometimes people refer to them as pieces of furniture. I can remember being at cat show with the cat photographer Helmi Flick photographing various cat breeds and you noticed then how some are more active than others. Persians are inactive compared to Bengals.
Ms Beckinsale says that her effort of "Trying to hype Willow up about winter woolly has been low yield so far". Her Instagram page is full of pictures of her cats so she is definitely a cat lover which I like. The other Persian is called Clive, he's the one with a grey coat.
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Kate Beckinsale and Clive her flat-faced Persian one of 2 that she lives with. Photo: Kate Beckinsale on Instagram. |
She has admitted that she is "very much a cat person". When she was growing up she had cats and a big dog she says. For her, cats are easier than dogs because "you don't have to walk around with a bag of poo like you do with a dog, which I hate to walk around with a bag of poop".
Clive is about 11 or 12-years-of-age. He had cancer and sometimes she shaves him. Shaving a cat with very long hair is not a bad thing to do but you may have to put the cat under a full anaesthetic which is a bad thing to do because it is potentially dangerous.
She inherited Willow from a friend. She describes Willow as "insane". That's why her friend gave Willow to her. They have completely different personalities. Clive likes suitcases and boxes and bags. He likes to climb into things. He has a suitcase bed which suits him perfectly. Willow prefers to "sleep in creepy, psychopath places like the back of a drawer, places that she could die [in]".
Apparently Willow is more difficult but she's pretty so she's forgiven!
Thursday, 3 July 2014
USA: Upcoming Improved Airline Reporting of Pet Travel Incidents
The United States Transportation Department announced on Wednesday last that improved reporting processes will be put in place starting January 1 2015 with respect to pet transportations by airlines. As I understand it, more airlines will be obliged to report and the reporting data will include the number of flights that transport pets as well as the number of incidents thereby allowing people to assess the safety record more accurately.
Airlines will have to report the transportation of cats shipped by breeders (commercial shipments) in addition to what happens now, which is pets being shipped by owners.
Apparently more airlines are brought into the regulations because smaller airlines will be involved. The new rule places an obligation upon airlines to report on animals that are injured, lost or killed during transportation. The number of carriers obliged to report has been expanded from 14 to 27.
Between May 2000 May 8, 2010 government statistics indicate that 122 dogs died while being transported by airlines by their owners as cargo.
Animal advocates had asked that the rules be extended further to include all animals, as I understand it, but I believe it was decided that it created too onerous task.
Apparently, Delta airlines has (or had) the worst record in respect of pet transportation incidents but it appears that they have cleaned up their act because Delta reported 16 pet deaths in 2010 and 2 in 2013. However, in 2011 more than 50% of pets who died during airline travel, flew Delta.
The improvement is put down to restrictions on the transportation of cats and dogs with breathing problems due to their extreme anatomical features. I'm referring to pugs for example and the modern Persian cat. It seems that it is more difficult for a pet to breathe in the hold of an aircraft and if a cat already has some difficulties in breathing then the combination can prove fatal.
Saturday, 2 June 2012
British Royalty Keeping Cats
By the way, I'm going down to the Thames tomorrow to have a look at the flotilla of boats accompanying the "Royal Barge" that cost a million quid - we can't afford it, I say.
I came to a rapid conclusion that the royals of Britain are dog people. That probably would not surprise most visitors who read this (very few!). The royals are sort of upper class (actually very upper class), hunting, shooting, fishing sorts and with that kind of background you are much more likely to prefer dogs. You know...the outdoor life, country sports lifestyle with hunting dogs etc.
The Queen is famous for her Corgis and that is about all I know about the Queens's animal preferences other than her love of horse racing. She kept or still keeps some racing horses.
One person who is part of the royal family but not at the heart of it is HRH Princess Michael of Kent. She has various talents including writing and interior design. She's a cat person.
People say that she is pushy and unpleasant. I don't know her but anyone who likes cats can't be unpleasant!
She keeps cats (plural). I have seen a picture on her website with two cats. One appears to be a rich dark brown/black cat (a moggie it seems) with a studded collar and the other is a Siamese as far as I can tell from the picture. You can see a photo on this page.
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Blue Persian cat of 1901 the kind Queen Victoria cared for. The cat is Lady Marcus Beresford's blue Persian "Gentian Landor". |

If we go back a bit further we discover that Queen Victoria cared for two blue Persian cats. Victoria was the Queen from 1837 until her death in 1901. This was the era of the beginning of the cat fancy. Persian cats were one of the relatively few cat breeds of that time and very popular they were.
There is a picture of Princess Victoria ("Toria"), daughter of Edward VII & Queen Alexandra (1868-1935) holding a cat on the royal yacht (see picture). I don't how significant this is. It does indicate that a royal personage kept a Siamese cat. The picture was taken in about 1914.
I can find nothing else that indicates that British royalty liked and kept cats. It's a doggy family.
However Siamese royalty was different. Siam is now Thailand and the Siamese cat as you probably know originates in Thailand. At one time, it seems (cat history can be a bit vague) that the Siamese cat was confined to the Royal Palace and the King of Siam. This was clearly a special cat in Thailand in the 19th century and the King of Siam, at the time of the cat's export to the West, was a cat person.
Siamese
Cat History King of Siam 1853-1910 |
The King of Siam allowed a foreigner to export the Siamese out of Siam to start the breed in the West. The story of the Siamese cat's kinked tail is bound up with the creation of this breed in the West. See also Siamese cat history.
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Meeting the Asiatic Lions of Gir Forest
I have been on a four day "Lion Safari Camp" with B.N.H.S (Bombay Natural History Society) tour group between Wednesday (16-5-2012) to Saturday (19-5-2012) to the Gir forests of Gujarat in India.
The Gir Forest is home to the last species of the Asiatic lion in the world numbering only about 400 approx. It is situated in the north-west of India (see map).
We visited the "Gir National Park" on 5 different occasions on 3 different days, lucky to spot the rare elusive lion. On the last day we saw an entire pride of 6 lions, sitting across our jeep trek road, approx 50 meters away from us. It was a life scene straight out of a "National Geographic Documentary".
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Pride of lions walking in a single file |
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A young lion spotted in the undergrowth bushes of Gir Forest |
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The pride sighted on Friday (18-5-2012). A rare situation |
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Doesn't cat Matata my Persian cat resemble a miniature lion? |
What baffled and surprised me was the behaviour of these totally wild lions towards the Guards (Wild-Life rangers) of the park. When a lion was spotted in the forest undergrowth by a guard the tourist jeeps were allowed to approach closer to the lion for photography and viewing. We spotted a lion on all 3 different days of a 3 hour safari ride inside the jungle and every time a forest ranger kept watch on the tourists and the lion.
These guards were familiar to the lions akin to our house-hold cats, hence allowed the guards to approach them on foot and a ordinary wooden baton within a 50 meters distance.
Remember, these are genuine wild forest lions that prey on other jungle species for survival including the nomadic Maldhari's tribal cattle. Yet these same lions have never ever attacked a forest ranger, very strange and also demonstrates that all wild species are basically scared of humans.
On the last day we spotted a pride of 6 lions relaxing on a mound, later walking in a file alongside the tourist road. The pride was led by a matriarch lioness and there were 3 cubs, a juvenile male lion and another mature lioness.
They resembled a mother cat with her kittens, reminding me of my own cats back home in Mumbai. For the first time in my life I got to observe natural wild lions and realized that our small house-hold cats mimic the behaviour of the "Big Cats".
Read my blog " The Last Asiatic Lion in Gir Forest":-
http://delhionasolobackpackersbudgettour.blogspot.in/
Rudolph.A.Furtado
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