Moggies... is it ever right to breed them?

[borderdawn]

Hi Donna.

I think the comparative to pedigree Cats is that they are vaccinated, registered and insured FIRST, with health tests completed. We will NEVER see the end of moggy litters, I would HATE that, most of my Cats are rescue moggies and I will have more in the future, and yes pedigrees end up in rescue too, but what I cannot grasp is why people dont breed mongrel dogs and think its irresponsible to do so, yet its OK with Cats?

NO health tests.
Father in most cases NOT known.
Irresponsible, unnessesary and unfair on those who spend their days picking up the pieces!
DAwn.

[Emm]

There are good and bad pedigree cat breeders

and

There are good and bad moggy cat breeders.


I don't think its fair to tarnish all with the same brush.


As for cats and dogs you cannot possibly compare the two - completely different animals.

[Donna]

Originally Posted by borderdawn

Hi Donna.

I think the comparative to pedigree Cats is that they are vaccinated, registered and insured FIRST, with health tests completed. We will NEVER see the end of moggy litters, I would HATE that, most of my Cats are rescue moggies and I will have more in the future, and yes pedigrees end up in rescue too, but what I cannot grasp is why people dont breed mongrel dogs and think its irresponsible to do so, yet its OK with Cats?

NO health tests.
Father in most cases NOT known.
Irresponsible, unnessesary and unfair on those who spend their days picking up the pieces!
DAwn.

I can see you point regarding unknown fathers and sickly cats Dawn - my Misty was an exact example. Sickly kitten by unknown cats taken on by me due to me feeling utterly disgusted at her so far life. I feel I have done a good thing by taking her in.

I would have to save for months for a pedigree and would never of had a cat otherwise.

Also, my mum had a mongrel dog and she was really cute. She was speyed straight away but I assumed this problem was as big in both species.

[borderdawn]

Why can you not compare the two Emm? They are both our pets and we are constantly going on about responsible dog breeding from health tested parents etc. should we discard our feelings for dogs when we consider cats?
Dawn.

[Emm]

You can't compare the two because dogs have been bred and then cross bred many times to gain the end result of the breeds that we have today.

Cats - moggies have been around for generations - more or less more natural.

What diseases do you get by moggies breeding? (I'm asking this because I genuinely don't know) cat flu, FelV etc are all preventable by vaccination so this does not count because if you were responsibily breeding you would have your cat vaccinated.

When you allow dogs to breed without testing they are prone to many illnesses - heart problems, eye problems, HD, poor temperamants etc.


I've had moggies all my life - I don't see what is wrong with them.

[Snoof]

I don't think anyone here wants there to be no moggie litters, and/or no moggies. I don't know anyone who has ever said to me that my cats were worth less because they were moggies (including of course past and present). I don't know anyone who thinks that way - what makes a cat special isn't who their parents were, but, I feel, who they are (and who - not what, although we all may get a cat because of looks at some point they rapidly dwindle in importance as the personality asserts itself).

But there has to be a way to stop there being so many moggies that rescue centres are overflowing with them. Yes, there are pedigrees who end up in rescues, but their numbers are far smaller in comparison. A lot of them go to breed-specific rescues, but you won't find that many rescues devoted to a single specific breed, whereas just about anyone lives relatively near a bog-standard rescue in which the overwhelming majority of cats will be moggies.

While rescues do wonderful work and are fantastic initiatives, even they can't find a home for every single cat they get in - and some have waiting lists so lengthy they can't even take in every cat they're asked to take.

4 out of 6 of the cats I have owned, and the one I am about to take in have been rescues. The kittens I'm looking for I am looking to get from a rescue. Each one has a horror story attached to it - the very least of which is Sweep sleeping in a shed every night and getting so covered in motor oil she's actively unpleasant to the touch because it's gotten in every single bit of her fur.

If we could get the spay-or-neuter message out to more people, and make it more accessible to those who may be less able to afford it, then there would be fewer of those. Should those kittens not have been born, simply because they had a horrible life? Of course not - they all made and make wonderful cats. But while the ones adopted by good families went on to have wonderful lives, they prevented those families from adopting the others, who went on to continue their awful lives.

Only so many cats can be rescued from the cruelty of the lives those who bred them irresponsibly subjected them to. And if we could get the number of cats who were bred in such a fashion to decrease enough, we could maybe end up living in a world where every cat is wanted, and every cat has a home to go to at the end of the day and a warm lap to curl up in if they so choose.

It's a utopian dream, but the problem with idealism is not that its goals are unattainable - it's that, if you stop trying to attain them, you never get a step closer to how things should be.

[Donna]

Perhaps if there were tougher penalties for people that have been caught abandoning their cats. Or guidelines about moggies and constant pregnancies and penalties if they get reported. Dont know how this could be imposed.

[Emm]

I have always wanted them to bring back having a liscence to own an animal. The money raised by the liscences would go into aniaml welfare and raising awareness of being a responsible pet owner.


The same would be for breeders where you would have to apply for a liscence to be a breeder and you would not be able to breed unless there was a demand for the off spring - homes already waiting.


I know it sounds fanciful but in my head it would be the way to stop so amny unwanted animals.

[borderdawn]

Originally Posted by Emm

You can't compare the two because dogs have been bred and then cross bred many times to gain the end result of the breeds that we have today.

Cats - moggies have been around for generations - more or less more natural.

What diseases do you get by moggies breeding? (I'm asking this because I genuinely don't know) cat flu, FelV etc are all preventable by vaccination so this does not count because if you were responsibily breeding you would have your cat vaccinated.

When you allow dogs to breed without testing they are prone to many illnesses - heart problems, eye problems, HD, poor temperamants etc.


I've had moggies all my life - I don't see what is wrong with them.

Yes Emm, I agree with those diseases mentioned, but the majority of moggy litters are fathered by unknown Cats, those ones are highly unlikely NOT to have been vaccinated. Of course we can all have our Cats vaccinated whatever they are and they still have the virus! I dont think any of us test them first do we? The first sign of illness is what we see, then it will be too late if the Cat has been bred from or allowed to father litters.

Rescues generally do test for these diseases and its testament to the high probabilty of those diseases being apparant that they do so.

Do you know what really wrenched me? I went to the "Pet vaccination clinic" with a friend about 2yrs ago and they had a sanctuary for FIV Cats, all confined, some were pets, some were feral, yet they lived together in a super enclosure. It was so sad, they could NEVER live a normal life, never know what being a pet was all about, never know about being loved and cared for. All because of irresponsible breeding and feral colonies getting out of control, and I also believe that pet people that do not neuter contribute greatly to these colonies.

Dawn.

[Emm]

I think maybe we are both agreeing kind off - I'm maybe just not coming across the right way.

If you were a responsible breeder then you would know who the father would be - its just you would be breeding a couple of moggy cats together instead of say a couple of persians.

I know what I'm thinking I'm just not maybe writing it in the right way.


For me personally I have all my animals neutered and spayed as soon as they are 6 months old - I have always done this and I always will.