The Wild Truth About Designer Cats
March 25, 2017
When you think of selective breeding, dogs are the first thing that come to mind. But with more than 40 different breeds of domestic cat in the world, it’s fair to say felines are also a product of selective breeding.
More recently, it’s domestic wild cats that have attracted a lot of attention, in particular the Bengal, Savannah and Toyger. These three designer cats have cat breeders excited and animal activists enraged.
Globally, there are about 600 million small cats in existence, including strays, rescues and street cats. Shelters are overrun by stray cats and millions are euthanized every year. So does it seem fair that cat breeders have dedicated their time to decades of selective breeding to find the perfect lookalike leopard or tiger?
Hybrid Cats and Scientific Research
When you look farther back to the origins of these cats, you’ll discover a scientist by the name of Willard R. Centerwall from Loma Linda University in California. He was breeding cats known as the F1 Bengal Hybrid Cat – a cross between an Asian leopard cat and a domestic cat that is half wild and half domestic – in an attempt to find a cure for leukemia. Dr. Centerwall bred these cats to obtain genetic samples that would help him find a cure for feline leukemia in the hopes it would lead to a cure for leukemia in humans. Once the kittens were born and the genetic samples collected, they were no longer needed. So these gorgeous kittens began to find their way into homes like Jean Mill – the first American to breed F1 Bengal Hybrid Cats.
The First Bengal Cat In America
Jean Mill received her first kitten in 1980 and started to breed them with domestic cats to create a line of second generation hybrids. Unfortunately, the males of this generation were born sterile, so she kept breeding domestic cats with the female hybrids until she had created a fourth generation of hybrid cats that was robust, fertile and healthy. Known as The Bengal, the breed was recognized in 1986 by the International Cat Association. These are the beautiful leopard cats you see today.
The Toyger and Savannah
The Toyger is a different story, as no wild cats were used in creating this line of gorgeous felines – just years of selective breeding by Jean Mill’s daughter, Julie Sugden. The Savannah, however, is a newer generation of hybrid cat that is not yet legal in most States across America. Bred with a wild cat from Africa called a serval, an F1 Savannah will cost you more than $20,000 and is illegal almost everywhere.
So what’s your view on designer cats? Should people be getting cats just because they look like wild, exotic animals? Should we be paying so much money to obtain one of these cats? Or wouldn’t it be better to donate that money to your local shelter to help these homeless cats? Let us know in the comments below.