List with links to 14 diseases inherited by the Peke-face Persian (infographic)

The list is pretty comprehensive. It may not be entirely complete but there are enough inherited diseases listed in this infographic to put the wind up anyone who is considering buying one of these cats. 

14 inherited diseases/conditions affecting the Peke-face Persian by Michael Broad

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I know that I am going on about this, perhaps for too long, but it is important that everybody is clear that the Peke-face Persian cat inherits these diseases because of decades of extreme breeding to create this abnormally flat face. The extreme breeding even feeds back into a disease called lordosis which is not to do with the face by the way! And it effects giving birth. Yes, the whole cat's being is affected and always negatively.

This extreme breeding affects the cat of course because they are likely to be much less happy than they would have been if they were blessed with normal anatomy. And it affects the caregiver because there's a lot more work to do in maintenance and it is likely that they will be obliged to take out a pet health insurance policy which in the modern era are quite expensive. 

And also at the moment there are a lot of people who are concerned about their financial affairs because there's been inflation and we are still, if we are honest, coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. It's impact is still felt.

And the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still being felt in Europe because of the need to source oil and gas from places other than Russia. I won't go on anymore but I hope people click on the links in this Infographic which go to more infographics for easy reading explaining these diseases.

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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.

Finland's new Animal Welfare Act prohibits unspayed female cats roaming freely outdoors

Finland has introduced a new Animal Welfare Act which deals with a number of problematic areas including what the Finnish call 'population cats' aka community cats or stray cats or feral cats. Here are some details about this new law...See below image for details.

The new Animal Welfare Act in Finland introduced measures to prevent uncontrolled reproduction, especially in cats. The law emphasizes that the reproduction of mammals, including cats, must be controlled by their owners. This means that letting unspayed female cats roam freely outdoors is not permitted, as it risks unregulated breeding and contributes to the feral cat population. The new rules aim to tackle the issue of abandoned and stray cats, which is a significant problem in Finland​.

In addition, there are strict regulations requiring cat owners to supervise their pets to prevent them from wandering freely. Cats left unsupervised outside of their owner’s property can be considered abandoned, which is against Finnish law​.

Further, Finland's new Animal Welfare Act, which came into force in 2024, represents a significant update to the country's approach to general animal protection. This comprehensive legislation strengthens protections for various animals, from pets to farm animals, and introduces several new measures aimed at improving their welfare.

Key Features of the Act:

1. Breeding and Pets: The Act includes strict rules on breeding, particularly for pets. It prohibits breeding practices likely to produce offspring with serious health issues or those that would cause harm to the animals. For instance, animals with hereditary defects that impair their well-being can no longer be bred.

2. Restrictions on Animal Use: The use of wild animals in circuses and traveling exhibitions is now banned. This includes prohibitions on keeping animals like sea lions in circuses, effectively ending the practice in Finland.

3. Care Requirements: The Act mandates that all mammals and birds should have continuous access to drinking water, although certain exceptions are allowed for species like reindeer and sled dogs under specific conditions. The law also imposes stricter requirements on the care of pets, ensuring they have proper opportunities for physical exercise, rest, and social interactions.

4. Ban on Certain Practices: The sale and use of electric and spiked collars have been banned, although electric cattle prods for farm animals are still allowed. Additionally, cosmetic surgeries like ear cropping and tail docking for dogs are prohibited.

5. Farm Animal Protections: The construction of new tie stalls for cattle has been banned, though existing ones can still be used. There are also enhanced requirements for the outdoor exercise of dairy cows, extending the mandatory walking period.

6. Fur Farming: Despite public pressure, fur farming was not banned, but the Act did not introduce new restrictions on this practice. This remains a controversial issue, with many advocating for a complete ban.

While the new Act introduces significant improvements, it has faced criticism for not going far enough in some areas, such as fur farming and the long transitional periods for certain practices. Nonetheless, it is a step forward in enhancing animal welfare standards in Finland.

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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.

Uncontrolled sibling breeding evident in this black cat brigade

The problem of uncontrolled breeding of unowned (and owned cats regrettably) is very evident in this picture of a group of black cats in the US on a country road.  They all look the same down to the spot of white on their chest on some individuals. 

RELATED: How fast do cats breed?

They are all closely related, parents and siblings.

The capacity of the domestic cat and domestic cats turned stray and feral to procreate is one of the big challenges of humankind. 

RELATED: Female feral cats avoid inbreeding in colonies.

Uncontrolled breeding in a colony of feral cats all of which look the same or very similar. Image: see embossed credit.

Apparently, we are not entirely capable of controlling it despite widespread spaying and neutering. 

A failure to sterilise is the cause of cat hoarders ending up in a massive mess and cruelly neglecting their cats. The opposite is achieved with well manages TNR programs supported by the local authority.

The benefits of controlling cat procreation are seen in TNR.

A tiny minority of cat people believe that a female cat needs to have one litter before feeling whole. This single incorrect superstition is the cause of hundreds of thousands of unwanted cats leading to many feral cats and in turn plenty of feline misery.

Some human thoughts are really silly and dangerous.

There are some interesting and technical downsides to universal spaying of female cats and neutering of male cats.

The most docile and friendliest cats are going to be captured and neutered while the wildest and meanest avoid people and are harder to capture and sterilise. This could lead to pushing the cat's evolution away from where we want it: more adoptable cats.

Also, if there were 100% sterilisation and no breeders the domestic cat would eventually become extinct. Not much chance of that bearing in mind that there are an estimated up to 500 million domestic, stray and feral cats on the planet.

Ingrid Newkirk, the co-founder of PETA would probably like the gradual extinction of the domestic cat as she is firmly against cat domestication. 

Click on this link to read four of her quotes and some comments on them.

Cat coats tabby - all about, nothing left out

Cat Coats Tabby - Mackerel Tabby cat Chihiro - photo copyright fofurasfelinas reproduced under a creative commons license

Introduction - history

The tabby markings/color is probably the most common, in either domestic cats or wild cats (e.g. Scottish wildcat). When cats breed randomly over a long period of time, apparently the coat color and pattern tend towards brown mackerel tabbies with green eyes (the most common "phenotype" - meaning the observed expression of the genetic make-up).

RELATED: Why are tabby cats so common?

This indicates a genetic predisposition towards what is probably the most efficient coat color/pattern in respect of the cat's survival. There are three tabby patterns: the classic blotched pattern, the striped or mackerel pattern, and the spotted pattern. The Bengal cat for example can have a spotted tabby or blotched coat, while the Egyptian Mau has a naturally occurring spotted tabby coat - the only naturally occurring spotted domestic cat it is said. 

The agouti ticked coat (the Abyssinian cat has the classic ticked coat) is a special kind of tabby coat. 

The Abyssinian has a special tabby coat. There are few markings unlike the usual tabby coats that can be spotted or blotched. This picture shows the banded hair strands. This photo is published under a Wikimedia Commons license. Author: Martin Bahmann 

RELATED: Amazing cat hug between red tabby mom and her kitten.

As mentioned, you can see the tabby coat in wild cats such as the African wildcat and American Bobcat for example. However, I don't recall seeing a wild cat with what the cat fancy calls the "blotched" tabby coat. All wildcats appear to have spots and/or stripes or no tabby pattern. The blotched tabby appears to be a creation of the cat fancy or at least it has been "developed" and enhanced by the cat fancy (cat breeders). 

Tabby cat from Ancient Egypt (not far from Saudi Arabia) from 1500 CE. Picture in public domain.

Dr. Desmond Morris, the great zoologist and writer, tells us that it is believed that blotched tabbies arose first in Britain in the Elizabethan era. As you can see, they arrived very late during the evolution of the domestic cat. For the first 2,000 years or so or more all tabby cats were spotted/striped (broken stripes) tabbies and all domestic cats were spotted tabbies. And therefore, all domestic cat during the era of the ancient Egyptians were spotted/striped tabbies.

Dr. Morris says that the blotched tabby became a winner. In other words, a favourite and he is not sure why they did so well. Perhaps they were more healthy or more fertile than the other forms of tabby cat or perhaps they had an unusual level of aggressiveness or assertiveness. Perhaps people just like them and informally bread them?

RELATED: Evolution of the blotched tabby.

Development of the blotched tabby domestic cat. My thanks to the scientists of the study:  The palaeogenetics of cat dispersal in the ancient world.

Today, the blotched tabby is the most common form of tabby coat and the striped tabby has gone into somewhat of a decline. Of course, nowadays the tabby coat is just one of many types of coat that have evolved during domestic cat evolution. However, Dr. Morris reminds us that genetically and in reality all domestic cats are tabbies. If they don't appear to be tabbies it is because the tabby pattern is masked by the other non-tabby colours.

African wildcat compared with domestic cat. Image: MikeB from images in the public domain.

Of course, the tabby pattern comes from the original domesticated wildcats. The North African wildcat has a week tabby pattern. And if we want to visualise the early domestic cats all you have to do is look at today's African wildcats. From paintings created in ancient Egypt we see that the Egyptian cats had light or broken stripes. When they were exported over thousands of years to other parts of the world including Europe, the cats began to hybridise with their European counterparts and the result was a full-tabby coat.

Tests have shown that when the week-tabby European and African wild cats were experimentally crossed the hybrid kittens developed coat patterns which were much closer to the full-tabby pattern of modern domestic cats according to Dr. Desmond Morris. I have quoted him verbatim.

Ginger blotched tabby. Photo: Pixabay.

All tabby cats have the classic M marking on the forehead in varies styles and disguises.

An example of a purebred and pedigree tabby cat would be the American Shorthair.  This breed looks particularly stunning in silver tabby. Another example of a beautiful purebred Maine Coon tabby can be seen by clicking on this link. The tabby pattern is often seen in Maine Coon cats. The cat associations allow a wide range of Maine Coon cat coat types (you'll see a great tabby MC on this link). There are some classic tabby patterns on wild cats. A good example is the tabby coat of the wildcats. These cats look very much like domestic cats as they are the wild ancestor of today's domestic cat.

Origin of Name

It is thought that the word, "tabby" originates in the appearance of silk sold in Baghdad (the Attabiyah region). This region must have been known for selling silks that had a striped appearance (watered - waved - silk) as incorporated into the name. Attabiyah is reference to the Latin attabi, and later the French tabis, which means, as I understand it, watered silk. As the striped and marbled tabby cats have the same general appearance, the word "tabby" was used to describe the coat.

Cat Coats Tabby - Mackerel Tabby cat Chihiro - photo copyright fofurasfelinas reproduced under a creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

The Genes

As mentioned, the wild cats have tabby coloration and patterns and the domestic cat is descended from the wild cat (see a comparison between the Scottish wildcat and domestic tabby). The pattern has 2 elements to it. (1) There will be a group of hairs in which the individual hairs have bands of color running horizontally up the hair strand. One band will be yellow and the next black. These hairs form the background color upon which the pattern is overlayed by the second group of hairs. The commonly spoken of "Agouti" gene (A) creates this banding pattern on the hair shafts. The banding on the hair shaft is due it is thought to a reduction in the production of the pigmentation granules or the production of a different and yellow pigment. This results in fewer granules that are spread more thinly throughout the hair follicle to give the beige/yellow looking color.

The pigment producing the black band in the hair shaft is called eumelanin and the yellow pigment is called phaeomelanin.

Tabby Hair Strand. Image: MikeB.

If the band near the surface is beige you get the light brown broken effect and if the black banding is near the top the black is broken up by the beige banding lower down. (2) The other group of hairs will be black because the yellow banding referred to above will have been reduced (repressed) to the base of each hair or removed entirely. This group is seen as the spots or stripes or blotchy patches of black or brown that forms the patterns seen in the pictures. This effect is a result of the presence of the Tabby gene (Mc/mc), which is present in all cats and so are the markings but often sufficiently suppressed as to be invisible.

I know a small classic tabby that has also solid black hair in swathes, and also black hair with one band of beige near the surface which creates a speckled look on black. All these combinations are mixed together in various proportions and in varying sized clumps to produce the tabby pattern. The pattern that we readily see is due to the alternation of solid color (black fur) with the banded fur to create a pattern as mentioned above. It is the Primary Tabby gene (Mc) that dictates how the pattern will shape up for the individual cat.


Cat coats tabby - Tabby cat. This is a great photograph of a tabby cat. I just had to put it on this page. It is reproduced under a creative commons license.

There are several varieties of tabby markings and of course as mentioned an almost inexhaustible spectrum of colors, contrasts and pattern variations particularly in purebred cats where the appearance of the cat is of paramount importance.

Update 12th January 2011: See an article on red tabby cats and a nice picture of a Maltese red tabby.

Torbie

The torbie is a mix of tabby and tortoiseshell. Here is an example:

Gemma: Torbie Siberian Cat. Photo copyright Helmi Flick

Read about torbies by clicking on the link below:

Torbie Cats

  
Tabby Cat Picture

There are a lot of tabby cat pictures on this page! People search for "tabby cat picture" so here is one of the best of a rescue cat by Giane Portal on Brazil. This is a classic blotched grey tabby cat - perfect example. You can see an orange tabby cat picture or two on this page.

Dominique - photo copyright Giane Portal

Mackerel Tabby


Cat Coats Tabby - Silver mackerel tabby cat - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Cat Coats Tabby - Cream and red mackerel tabby cats - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Cat Coats Tabby - Red mackerel tabby cat - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Cat Coats Tabby - Brown mackerel tabby cat - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Cat Coats Tabby - Blue and brown mackerel tabby cats - American curl cats - photo copyright Helmi Flick

The type we probably are most familiar with is the mackerel, stripped tabby. This is considered the wild type of tabby pattern. The genotype (the genes producing the black tabby coat) is A (agouti) + B (black) + D (dense coloration) + Mc (tabby gene).

Breeders like high contrast striping that is nice and evenly spaced and the stripe should be continuous. The Toyger has this. The Toyger also has a beautiful base or ground color that is incredibly warm (orange almost). The base color comes from the color of the agouti band on the individual hair strand. The warming up of the ground color is due to selective breeding in modifier genes (rufus modifiers). Click on the link to go to a pictures of cats.org videos of cats many of which are fundamentally tabby cats (YouTube, channel is broadsurf the YouTube name of Michael at Picture of Cats).

Classic Tabby


Blue classic tabby - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Red classic tabby - Maine Coon - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Cream classic tabby - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Brown classic tabby - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Silver classic tabby cat - This as you might have guessed is an American Shorthair cat. I have a post dedicated to the American Shorthair tabby cat. The silver is due to the Inhibitor gene I, which inhibits the production the yellow Agouti banding leaving the black to contrast more starkly with a gray/silver background.

The genotype (the genes producing the black tabby coat) of the classic blotched tabby cat is A (agouti) + B (black) + D (dense coloration) + mcmc (tabby gene). The difference to the mackerel tabby is the existence of the mc allele (allele = one of a pair of genes).

Spotted Tabby


Brown spotted Tabby - Bengal cat - - photo copyright Helmi Flick. Bengal cats are known for a very high contrast marbled pattern, see some superb examples by clicking on this link. Spots are another form of tabby pattern. You can see this beautifully expressed in the Bengal cat and/or, for example, the Ocicat.


Blue spotted tabby cat - - photo copyright Helmi Flick

Cream spotted tabby - Exotic Shorthair cat - photo copyright Helmi Flick



Silver spotted tabby - an example of the presence of the Inhibitor gene I - a Bengal cat - photo copyright Helmi Flick.

Research is still being carried out on the genetics behind the spotted tabby coat. It may be due to a modifier gene on the mackerel tabby. The striping of the mackerel tabby can break up and if that is captured and bred into the cat you'll get spots. In the Ocicat it seems that the effect is due to a dominant modifier of the blotched classic tabby pattern. Click on the link to see a video of the Ocicat on YouTube (this video is part of Pictures of Cats.org)


Ticked Tabby - Abyssinian Tabby



Cat Coats Tabby - Silver ticked tabby - Abyssinian cat - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Cat Coats Tabby - Red ticked tabby - photo copyright Helmi Flick


Cat Coats Tabby - Brown ticked tabby - photo copyright Helmi Flick.

Robinson's genetics says that the gene that produces the Abyssinian ticked coat is not the same gene as the tabby gene producing the classic and mackerel. They call it the "ticked gene". The authors say that the Abyssinian cat's appearance is a mutation of the normal tabby. The tabby pattern occurs on the head, legs and tail and very faintly elsewhere on the body. Breeders like to reduce the pattern further by careful breeding. The most frequently seen Aby color is the ruddy (red) - middle picture above - called the "usual". Breeders breed in a warmer color.

The full set of genes producing the well known Abyssinian coat are: AA (Agouti) - B (black) - D (dense coloration) - T^aT^a (ticked gene).

The tabby cat locus maps to the feline chromosome B1. It seems possible that the tabby gene has a homologue (common evolutionary origin) on human chromosome 8 or 4. (src: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/)

Interesting

This is an interesting bit of information about the tabby cat as camouflage, which comes from Desmond Morris's book "Catwatching". It had been proposed by a nineteenth century naturalist (I presume) that when a tabby cat is curled up she/he looks a bit like a "coiled snake". Once again this is a form of mimicry, one of a number of examples of the cats mimicry of the snake as an act defensive. Read about a cat hiss as another example.

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A Torbie is a mixture of tabby and tortoiseshell. An example of tortoiseshell is the black tortoiseshell or just plain old tortoiseshell cats (this page has great pictures). Some people think the tabby cat is a cat breed.

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See a Tabby Persian cat picture by Helmi Flick

Cat coats tabby - Photographs not captioned are copyright Helmi Flick and as follows:

• Top is a classic tabby
• 2nd is the mackerel tabby

Cat coats tabby - Sources:

• Messybeast
• Cat Fanciers
• Beth Hicks
• Robinson's Genetics
  

From Cat Coat Tabby to Cat Facts

The world's first cat breeders were Ancient Egyptians and they were ignorant

The ancient Egyptians may well have been the world's first cat breeders. Also, they may have bred by far the greatest number of cats at any time in the history of cat breeding.  They were world record holders when it comes to the domestic cat but in a very uncomfortable way.

This was not a nation that worshiped the cat in the way you do when you respect the cat as a sentient being; no, it was worshiping the cat as a deity and breeding millions of cats for ritualistic sacrifice. As I said this was a nation of cat abusers not cat lovers.

Bastet - Ancient Egyptian sculpture - Louvre museum

I think the word "worship" has been misused in relation to the cat in ancient Egypt. The worship of the god Bastet (a statue in the shape of a cat - the god of beauty) was not due to a respect for the real cat, the domestic cat as a useful companion animal. It was about using and abusing the domestic cat to try and please a god with the intention of improving the life of the worshiper. It was buying good luck. 

It just so happens the god was a cat in this instance and they devised a way to please the god: kill cats. By enlightened modern standards, it is all a completely fabricated load of nonsense at the expense of the vulnerable cat. Note: there are still millions of people who believe this sort of stuff in 2022. For instance, drinking tiger bone wine to improve health etc. is very similar in the underlying superstitions.

If there was a reverence for the domestic cat it was born out of a desire to please the god Bastet. Perhaps they believed they had to have reverence for the cat. That reverence did not translate into respect. These are two completely different concepts, obviously.

At the root of all good cat caretaking there is respect for the cat as a cat. To see the cat as an animal that can be breed in the millions for sacrifice to a god is not a demonstration of respect for the cat. It is the opposite.

Photo: AFP.

Clearly the mentality of the people in Egypt some 2,200 years ago and more will be different to modern people. We have to adjust for that. However, I say that we have to view animal abuse in an absolute sense regardless of the era and by the highest and most enlightened standards. 

This is because being cruel to animals and killing animals for the convenience of people is an absolute act. It is black and white. The cat is alive; the cat is dead. All creatures have a right to life. I don't believe that we can criticise the ancient Egyptians for killing cats for sacrifice but I do believe that we can say that it was cat abuse, full stop.

Ancient Egyptians worshiped Bastet for various reasons; the reasons changed over time indicating the fickle nature of the whole process. Latterly Bastet was a protector of motherhood and fertility. Bastet was a protector of pregnant women and children. Ironic then that the necks of kittens were ritually broken to seek favours from this god (votive offerings). 

Votive offerings are still made today (2012) and are offerings to supernatural forces or beings for favors in return. Personally, I see votive offerings of deliberately killed kittens as an expression of self-indulgent, misplaced beliefs resulting in cat cruelty. 

I know that is a tough judgement but where animal suffering is concerned, I feel I have the right to make tough judgements. It is horribly depressing to realise that similar things happen today. Think about eating a tiger penis to improve your sex life! True. Or killing the domestic cat in a certain brutal way and eating it to improve your health.

This abuse of the cat in ancient Egypt would not have happened if the cat had not been domesticated. It is probable that the god Bastet would not have been invented but for the domestication of the cat. It is argued that domestication of the cat gives power to the human that can lead to abuse of the subservient partner. The relationship between cat and human became potentially distorted.

A study extracting DNA from cat mummies in researching the origins of the domestic cat by Jennifer Kurushima and her colleagues indicate that the domestic cats of ancient Egypt are the forerunners of today's domestic cats. It confirms what we knew already.

Cats were bred in catteries and sold in their millions for sacrifice, Jennifer says. The thousands of mummified cats in tombs and catacombs usually had "ritually broken necks".

"Millions of mummies were offered and buried in areas throughout Egypt", she says. My personal opinion is that we need to adjust our view of the ancient Egyptian's relationship with the cat. Perhaps we think that because the Egyptians were the first to domesticate cats, they liked and respected the cat.

I think it was more to do with using the cat to their advantage both as a utility animal in reducing rodent populations etc. and, as mentioned, to improve fertility or beauty or whatever else they desired through votive offerings. A harsh assessment but probably more truthful that a lot of the regurgitated platitudes on the internet.

The Egyptian Mau is interesting too, being the first domesticated cat - domesticated it is said from the African wildcat. In 2012, the feral Egyptian Mau - you could argue the true and purest Egyptian Mau - is abused and persecuted on the streets of Cairo etc.. There is a charity (EMRO) that has been set up to help and protect them.

By the way, as an afterthought, the cats that were bred in their millions for sacrifice would have been Egyptian Maus; not the sort of refined purebred cat we see today but a cat that was in fact nearer the truer Egyptian Mau simply by the fact that it was nearer the wildcat. They were not breeding for appearance (selective breeding) but for numbers. They were kitten mills or factories.

Associated: My lovely Egyptian Mau in Egypt. Egyptian Mau Belly Flap.

1901 Persian Cat vs 2009 Persian Cat

A pictorial comparison between a Persian cat of 1901 in Britain and a Persian show cat of about 2009 in the United States. The difference shows us how far the development of the Persian cat has come over more than 100 years. Is it a good, positive development?

I'd like to refer you to two pages on PoC that discuss the Persian cat and its development:

1. Persian cats
2. Persian cat breeding

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.

I don't know about anybody else, but it has always mystified me why the cat breeders who administer the CFA decided that the Persian cat should have such a flat face. For some reason they think that the appearance of this extreme Persian cat is more aesthetically pleasing than the original version. I can't see the logic in the decision making. 

The earlier versions are aesthetically more pleasing than the later ones. It seems to me that the cat associations have gone backwards. Not only are the early Persians better looking they are healthier because the extreme breeding alters the anatomy, as you know, of the face which can cause breathing problems and tear duct overflow. 

What is going on? What happened? How did the CFA arrive at this situation? And can they go back? They certainly don't want to go back when they should be more open to that possibility. In fact, I would highly recommend that they do, for the reasons stated above.

Associated: Traditional Persian Cat.

Persian Cat and the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals

Note: this is about cat welfare so please don't be put off by the technical title! Sometimes the most boring unpublicised things are the most important. The United Kingdom did not agree to sign up to the excellent but little-known European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals. It came into force on 1/5/1992. A "convention" is a treaty; an agreement between nations. In this case European nations.

 European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals. States signed and ratified in green.

The reason why the United Kingdom did not agree is because the Convention sensibly required signatories to the convention to ban tail docking. The premier dog association The Kennel Club and other dog associations presumable lobbied Parliament and convinced the government to not ratify the convention (sign up to it) because of the ban on tail docking.

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). 

Flat-faced Persian illustrating the GCCF page on this cat breed.

The selective breeding of the Persian cat to create a short skull and nose is referred to in a resolution of experts that is based on the convention. The resolution sets out breeding guidelines. They say that the flat face is something to be avoided in breeding. That is obvious to most people from the point of view of health issues but it is nice to see it stated at a high political level.

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:

Any person who selects a pet animal for breeding shall be responsible for having regard to the anatomical, physiological and behavioral characteristics, which are likely to put at risk the health and welfare of either offspring or the female parent.

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?

Update: you can see that I first wrote this article in 2012. So, I decided to check whether anything has changed. It has not. It should be noted that this convention is not limited to EU members. It is wider than that. The UK is listed as "not signed" but it is a part of the Council of Europe member states.

Wikipedia states that the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals can be described as follows:

A treaty of the Council of Europe to promote the welfare of pet animals and ensure minimum standards for their treatment and protection. The treaty was signed in 1987 and became effective on 1 May 1992, after at least four countries had ratified it. Adherence to the treaty is open and not limited to member countries of the Council of Europe. As of June 2020, it has been ratified by 24 states (most recently by Spain in July 2017).

Some member states who have signed are exempt from the prohibition of tail docking as allowed by this convention. Wikipedia states that: "No country that has ratified the treaty has made any reservations regarding the other cosmetic surgeries prohibited by §10: cropping of ears, removal of vocal cords, and declawing."

It seems that tail docking is the problem area for members of this Convention. The reference to declawing is interesting because although it is commonplace in America it is simply not on the radar in Europe or the UK. And I'm referring to declawing for non-therapeutic reasons.

Interestingly, the GCCF Persian breed standard does not say that the cat's face should be flat as far as I can see and rather particularly it states that the head of the Persian should be "well-balanced". How can it be well-balanced when one side of it is entirely flat? The CFA breed standard for this cat states that the face must be flat and so I wonder why British Persian cat breeders are still reading flat-faced Persians?

Is cat personality linked to coat colour and type?

People like to think that there is a connection between the appearance of someone or an animal and their personality. British people refer to tortoiseshell cats as being "naughty torties" or having "catitude". Sometimes blotched tabbies are referred to as "real homebodies". And mackerel tabbies are seen as being independent. While white patches on a cat's coat have a calming effect on the personality.

Incidentally, it is not until fairly recently that people started to understand that domestic cats have a personality. Even scientists believed that only humans had personalities. That seems hard to believe nowadays.

Is this tortie a naughty cat? Photo:Twitter.

I've always felt that red tabby cats have good relaxed characters. Red tabbies are also called ginger or marmalade cats. They always seem to be spoken of in glowing terms as companions with nice, affable characters. But this is all anecdotal. To turn to science, some scientists believe that the biochemistry that creates different coat colours and types also affects the cat's brain. This is called "pleiotropy". But apparently there is little evidence to support this scientific theory says Dr Bradshaw in Cat Sense.

Perhaps we are on a more solid scientific footing when we turn our attention to the purebred, pedigree cats. With pedigree cats there is a lineage so we know the parents and grandparents; in short, there is a family tree, which allows scientists to study the inheritance of the genes.

There is a relatively restricted gene pool in breeding lines which allows the temperament of a founding cat to be brought forward all the way down the breeding line. So, for example, there is a limited number of high-quality male cats within each breed who are available to produce the type of coat desired as per the breed standard. As a result, the personality of these tomcats becomes predominant within a section of all the cats in a single breed.

For example, there was a time about 20 years ago when British Shorthair cats bred in Scotland with tortoiseshell, cream and especially red coats were difficult to handle. They traced this personality trait back to a single male cat who had a difficult personality. This, incidentally, is an example of breeders breeding for appearance over personality. This founding, male cat was unsuitable, it seems.

And also pointed cats, which you will see both in the Siamese and other pedigree cats and indeed in non-pedigree cats, are likely to be vocal. This is a well-known trait for Siamese cats. The reason, it is said, is because the gene that causes the points i.e. the dark extremities to the cat's body are rare unless that cat has at least one Siamese in its recent ancestral past.

Another way in which coat type and colour can be linked to personality is when the gene that controls the coat is physically close, on the same chromosome, as the gene that affects the way the brain develops. Under these circumstances the chances that a kitten will inherit the combination of these two genes, one affecting the coat and one affecting the brain is much higher. They tend to be inherited together although it doesn't always happen.

An example would be the dominant white gene which causes a cat's coat to be devoid of pigment and therefore is white, sits next to a gene which causes both eyes to be blue and the cat to be deaf. That's why white cats are often deaf with blue eyes or they have odd-eye colour. Because the cat is deaf it affects their personality and therefore in this instance coat type and colour affects personality.

I am indebted to Dr John Bradshaw for the above. Some more...

One aspect of people attaching personality to coat type is that it may colour their opinion of their cat (excuse the pun). The point that I am getting at is that if a person believes that tortoiseshell cats are naughty and if with that belief, they mishandle their tortoiseshell cat and are scratched, the two aspects to their relationship come together which may result in the cat being relinquished to a shelter.

A study found that participants were likely to attribute friendliness to orange cats and intolerance to tricolour cats and aloofness to white and tricolour cats. White cats were seen as being more shy and calmer than cats of other colours.

The participants to the study said that they thought personality was more important than colour when selecting a cat companion. This is interesting because cat breeders of purebred cats attach more importance to appearance that personality. There appears to be a disconnect between cat breeders and their clients.

Brachycephalic Persian cat with bulging eyes can have corneal problems

In this article I want to point out the bulging eyes of the Exotic Shorthair and the Persian, two associated breeds because the former is a shorthaired version of the latter. In this picture we can see the "punch-face" appearance of the Persian. It almost looks as if this cat has suffered a catastrophic injury to the face as it's been flattened. And this, to my mind, leaves the eyeballs bulging outwards beyond the protection of the bones of the face. This leaves the cornea exposed because there is a reduced ability to close the eyelids.

 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 the bulging eye problem is particularly noticeable with the Exotic Shorthair cats. I've seen a lot of this and I think it is an unfortunate side effect of this extreme selective breeding. I don't think the breeders want this but it goes with the territory of the flat-face as does other health problems which you read about by clicking on this link.

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.

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. 

 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!

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.

The straight answer about the Scottish Straight cat

I am going to be quite blunt. I think, however, I am being fair. The Scottish Straight is a normal-eared Scottish Fold. And because the Scottish Fold is a normal-looking cat except for the ears which are folded to the skull, the Scottish Straight looks like any other cat including random bred cats. 

The Scottish Straight has lost the only thing which distinguishes the Scottish Fold from all other cats and because of that I don't see the point of trying to sell them to customers. The Scottish Straight is an accident or perhaps they are better described as an inconvenience because they have to be bred in order for the Scottish Fold to be healthy.

Scottish Straight kitten. Photo and breeder: Елена Тюкачева.

This is because breeders have to outcross to a non-folded eared cat when creating litters of Scottish fold cats. They cannot create homozygous cats because when you do that the genetic mutation creates abnormalities in other parts of the body such as the vertebrae and the feet. 

The cat has abnormalities which seriously affects their health and well-being. The only way to avoid this is to create heterozygous cats and when you do that half the litter have folded ears (they actually develop later as kittens are not born with these folded ears) and the other half have normal ears. It is these normal-eared cats which are called Scottish Straight cats.

I don't want to be nasty or critical of people who genuinely are trying to do their best. I'm referring to cat breeders of the Scottish Fold which is currently quite a popular cat thanks to celebrities such as Taylor Swift who likes to carry her Scottish Fold around like a handbag. That is another thing which I disagree with by the way but once again I don't want to be critical because it seems to be fashionable.

The trouble is that there is a big questionmark about the morality or ethics of breeding Scottish Fold cats. This is probably a tiresome topic to many people. As soon as you bring up morality and ethics people tend to yawn and turn off. I understand that but cat breeders have a duty of care towards their cats and if their cats have an inherent health issue they will struggle to discharge that responsibility. The breeding process becomes flawed. It becomes impossible to behave entirely morally which begs the question whether the Scottish Fold breed should exist in the first place.

Silver classic tabby Scottish Fold kitten with a WOW appearance. Photo and breeder: Oksana Mazai.

In Germany, as you may know by now, they ban this sort of cat breed because they describe the breeding process as "torture breeding". They categorise other cat breeds in the same way such as the Persian because that cat is born with inherited health issues such as difficulty breathing and tear duct overflow and a high percentage of Persian cats have polycystic kidney disease.

So the moral of this story is: the Scottish Fold shouldn't exist (and neither would the straight variant either)! The cat fancy is ambivalent about this breed of cat and other cats with similar inherited diseases. Some associations accept them and some don't. The World Cat Federation is the cat Association to which Russian breeders are normally affiliated including The International Cat Association. The World Cat Federation accepts the inherent problems of the Scottish Fold which is why on Facebook Russian breeders of this cat advertise for sale Scottish Straight cats.

Are Abyssinian cats vocal and talkative?

Yes, they are talkative but there are two ways to answer the question: the conventional and the unconventional way. The conventional answer pretty clearly states that Abyssinian cats are talkative. Gloria Stephens, a cat show judge and a person with considerable knowledge of the cat breeds, describes the Abyssinian cat as an individual that "loves to talk with people in a euphonic voice". Fair enough.

Abyssinian cat. Photo: Helmi Flick.

A pretty distinct and clear answer. The unconventional answer comes from me but of course I defer to Gloria Stephens. However, I don't think that you can say with certainty that Abyssinian cats are talkative. Firstly, it depends on the individual cat because even within a cat breed there will obviously be variations between individuals as to personality and personality has a bearing on whether the cat is talkative or not.

Secondly, the amount of vocalisations that a cat makes depends upon the environment in which they live. If you have a tremendously loving human caretaker in a close relationship with an Abyssinian cat, the cat is liable to be quite talkative to that person. It's simply an extension of their relationship.

Thirdly, cat breeders normally focus on the appearance of the cat they are breeding and their behaviour comes second. You never hear of cat breeders selectively breeding for a cat that is talkative. It is not on their radar to declare to themselves that a particular cat is very talkative and therefore to put that cat in the breeding line to ensure that offspring and their offspring are going to be more vocal. To the best of my knowledge, they don't do that. They don't focus on a tendency to vocalise because they are fully focused on the appearance which takes precedence over everything else.

The Siamese cat is known to be vocal with a particularly characteristic voice as it happens. But even with the Siamese there is variation. The point that I'm labouring on explaining is that Gloria Stephens makes a definitive statement about Abyssinian cats being vocal but I wouldn't go that far. I would answer in a more cautious way because I don't think you can brand an entire cat breed with the description that all the cats in the breed are talkative and vocal.

Do male cats mate with their siblings?

Yes, male cats do sometimes mate with their siblings. They are not choosy it seems. Neither are the females as they will mate with a series of males such that their litter might have different fathers. But it depends on the opportunity and the personality of the cat. 

Forgive the rudeness of the photo. Cat mating on  a car's hood (bonnet in the UK).
Photo: in the public domain.

Male domestic cats are often neutered as are female cats. And male cats arrive to mate with a female in heat and then disappear as they are solitary animals. Except when they are forced to live cheek by jowl for example in a rescue setting where many cats live in the same home of perhaps a cat rescuer who has turned into a hoarder.

I remember seeing a photograph of about fifty white cats in one home. Clearly the parents had procreated and the male had mated with some of the offspring on a regular basis to create this huge colony of lookalike cats stuffed into the tiny kitchen looking for their dinner.

And there is that well-known picture of a Japanese island famous for its cat colony. There are hundreds of ginger tabbies or that is the impression. They family has inbred for donkey's years to create this massive family of orgiastic felines going at it from one year to the next.

Japanese island colony of look alike ginger tabby cats. Photo: public domain.

The thing is you don't read about it in the books on cats. It seems that the top writers on cats don't like to write about it.

Notwithstanding the apparent reluctance to write about cat orgies, Dr Desmond Morris in his book Catwatching states that a single breeding pair of domestic cats can procreate their way to a staggering 65,000 cats in five years, at least in theory because many die. The calculation is based on the presumption that males and females are born in equal numbers and that they all start breeding when they are a year old.

Kittens can grow into unneutered adults who are content to mate with their mothers. The males desire to mate due to their testosterone is not concerned with the finer points of life. Their mother is another female to mate with. A friend of mine tried to get his male white Persian to mate with his mother. The male was entirely disinterested. Is that a personality trait issue?