A Misguided Sense of Priorities

The posting would be funny if its subject matter was not of such grave concern. Indeed there are moments when you have to smile at the ludicrously inappropriate responses from both the breeder who was raided, and the CFA people. Tragicomedy!

Dozens of cats found in Long Island home

Note the irrelevant information dished up by the breeder to the rescue authorities "The red fellow here is a grand premier". Hello! Who cares? The title is nonsense - it matters only to those inside the cat fancy who think it is something of value. It isn't of course. And to any normal person , this type of statement comes across sounding really whacko. Makes you want to go and bang on his skull and ask if there's anyone in there. He's being raided and the stench is reportedly overwhelming - and he's going around saying "and this is Maddie, and that's Ethylene etc." Are we on the same planet?

"We breed and show pedigreed cats". Yeah Yeah. And live in a sea of cat urine and faeces. But he has someone who comes in twice weekly to clean the house and empty the sandboxes. Isn't this reasonable? The reason I'm asking, is that there seems to be something going on in that lonely dark space this breeder is pleased to call a brain (and in the brains of every other cat breeder) that indicates that this is perfectly reasonable. But it's not, as every normal (non cat fancy) person will attest.

He says, "I'm not overwhelmed". If not, his cats certainly are. They're sentient beings - they surely must find being housed in excrement and filthy stinking surrounds and being made to use over-dirty litter boxes overwhelming.

Cat behaviourists tell us there should be a litter box for each cat, plus one extra. Forty one litter boxes in his home? I doubt it - there wouldn't be enough space. The cat litter boxes in our home are cleaned at least 4 times daily and no waste is allowed to lie in a box for any length of time. But overnight it accumulates, and in the morning boxes have to be cleaned. I shudder to imagine the kind of mess that 40 cats make over a 3-4 day period in their litter boxes.

"And you can take care of the cats?" he is asked by the reporter. YES   "40 of them?" YES

No he can't - he presents himself as a lunatic who needs to be given a nice quiet place to be locked up in - like his cats, but more humane and hygienic. The problem is, as the reader will note when following the link below, that the CFA people think this is merely mischief making by people intent of ruining their cat fancy, and everything is being blown out of proportion.

And there's the rub - cat (and dog) fancies are not self-regulating because they do not focus on animal welfare issues, but only on show income and titles  - again to the normal person, this is clearly inappropriate.

Witness the exchange of mails involving certain CFA cat breeders on behalf of their registry's interest. I am amused by the show manager who was incensed at the fact that this raid occurred immediately before a CFA show that was being held in the same area. So who has a skewed sense of priorities then? I didn't hear much sympathy for the cats.

(In this exchange, BAP = Breeder Assistance Program and BR = Breeder Rescue).


Clearly, the fact that the CFA have assistance programs of this nature to aid breeders who get into trouble (mainly due to overcrowding), is an indication that all is not well in the cat fancy - in that breeders have a tendency to acquire and retain excess cats, spurred on by the promise of show success and the economics of selling kittens. That said, any normal person (they exist in everyday life outside the animal fancies) would put measures in place to prevent the registration of more than a set number of animals, and/or inspect and censure the owners, thus curtailing the practice.

And one of the key areas of cat fancy emphasis is not getting animal rights (AR) or PETA involved, and preferably not the SPCA either. And of course no breeder wants a animal inspector wandering around their home - for obvious reasons that have nothing to do with their privacy. Anyone who was really interested in the welfare of the cat would welcome inspection with open arms. Come to think of it, any cat fancy that really was serious about cat health and welfare, would have instituted compulsory cattery /home of excellence programs (with mandatory inspections) a long time ago.


But nobody is serious about it, and the dirt has to be kept swept under the rug....


Waxolotl cattery raided by authorities


I am starting to formulate the opinion that anyone who remains in the cat or dog fancy for any length of time, gets attacked by brain-rot. Or is brain-dead in the first place.