This and That

If you love Scottish fold cats, I’m going to tell you something you don’t want to hear. Please, please read on anyway. If you are considering adopting a Scottish fold, PLEASE continue reading. This information needs to be more widely known.

In 2008, the Journal of Small Animal practice released a short report on disorders associated with breeds of cats. In this report, the authors mentioned the Scottish fold:

People who own them may be “charmed” by their round faces and open expression (and they may not realise that the reason the cats do not move around too much is because they are variably crippled with arthritis).1

The gene that causes the cute fold in the Scottish fold’s ear also leads to the development of a degenerative disorder called osteochondrodysplasia. ALL Scottish folds have this disorder, whether they show symptoms or not- the fold in their ears is caused by a cartilage deformity that also affects their joints.

Osteochondrodysplasia leads to crippling osteoarthritis, which affects Scottish folds at much younger ages than other breeds of cats. In cats heterozygous for the gene, the disease’s progression can be seen in cats as young as six months. In homozygous cats, it can be seen as early as seven weeks old.

Affected cats may be grossly deformed, with short wide limbs and a short, inflexible tail. They show lameness, swollen wrist (carpal) and ankle (tarsal) joints, have an abnormal gait, and are reluctant to move and jump. Severely affected individuals become crippled and unable to walk.

…Many affected cats are euthanased earlier in life due to the profound effects of this disease.2

The breed is often described as “placid” and “calm.” This is due to the fact that they are constantly in pain due to this disorder. Even in mild, ‘asymptomatic’ cases which can occur in heterozygous cats, they may still be experiencing pain due to cats’ tendency to hide their suffering.

Many breeders of Scottish folds claim that not all heterozygous cats have the disorder, because the studies that examined the cats (which were all, heterozygous or not, shown to have it) had small sample sizes.

In 2003, Lorraine Shelton, a specialist in genetic diseases, offered to pay for 300 x-rays of healthy adult Scottish folds to prove that the disorder was not present in some heterozygous cats.

…She has asked a list of 300 Scottish Fold breeders from around the world to go to their vet to get X-rays done. She had offered to pay for these X-rays but not a single breeder had taken up that offer. You could not know whether this problem existed unless an X-ray was taken. If somebody would send her an X-ray of a healthy hind leg of a folded eared cat, she would be grateful as she wanted to see the very first one.3

To date, no one has taken her up on the offer. The breeders’ unwillingness to have their cats examined speaks volumes. The authors of all studies on these cats agree: it ethically wrong to continue breeding these cats.

It disturbs me that any breeder would knowingly continue to create animals that will be in pain throughout their lives. As a cat lover myself, I am begging you, please do not buy Scottish folds. Do not support these unethical breeding practices, or the concept that it is acceptable to intentionally breed unhealthy animals for the sake of how they look.

Citations

1 Breed-related disorders of cats (discusses issues with other breeds as well)

2 Genetic welfare problems of companion animals: osteochondrodysplasia (a thorough description of the disease and its prevalence)

3 FIFe meeting notes (leading to a decision not to recognize Scottish folds as an offical breed due to the disorder)

There was also a follow-up email about Shelton’s offer which can be read here.

Studies on osteochondrodysplasia in Scottish Folds

Osteochondrodysplasia in Scottish Fold cats

Incomplete dominant osteochondrodysplasia in heterozygous Scottish Fold cats (this is the source of the above x-ray pictures)

Let me tell you about Balto. There was a lady in my town who owned a Siberian Husky named Balto that she would let him roam town and people either had to take him into their homes each night or call animal control. 

Eventually all you’d have to say to them was “Balto’s loose again” and you wouldn’t even have to fill out anything. He was digging up gardens, shitting on people’s driveways, nearly run over 3 times (one of which caused a guy to swerve and hit a mailbox), he jumped someone’s fence and impregnated their Lab, he was forcefully removed from property by people who didn’t like dogs, had BB guns shot at him by kids, chased cats into trees and was eventually attacked by an aggressive dog. After a $500 vet bill, she let her dog back outside again! Her excuse was that she “couldn’t keep him in the yard”, which was just because he was a high energy breed and she worked 10 hrs a day, do she didn’t have the time to exercise him. So why pay $1100 for a high energy breed when you know you can’t handle one? Novelty. He was eventually picked up and sold online because he was a purebred, found him 8 hours away, after the person who bought him saw her post on facebook. 

Me, my family members, random bystanders/people from out neighborhood, often brought her back at home (luckily, cuz she didn’t even had a tag on her collar most of the times.) and I personally witnessed that time, when this dog crossed the road and almost got hit by a motorcycle who was coming quite fast. That could cause an accident, the death of a person AND the death of the dog itself. DO NOT LET YOUR DOG ROAMING FREELY FOR THE STREETS. It is dangerous and highly irresponsable!

Let me tell you that these people stopped to have issues with the “escaped dog“, after that people started to bring the dog not to them anymore, but to the shelter nearby. And at the shelter they ask to you to pay a good fee, if they find your dog and it turns out it is escaped. After the sixth time they had to pay actual money, they stopped it once for all.

They are six people in that family. SIX. And none of them ever had the time/will to take care of this poor dog. Which is a sweetheart and a very smart one too. They litterally get this dog cuz somebody gave it to them for free. (Add to this, that some time ago they came back at home with a smaller dog who magically “escaped” as well. The difference is that the new one was a stray and they didn’t make it in time to chip it and gave it a collar. It never came back.)

https://twitter.com/curiouszelda

If nobody’s drawn any @lackadaisycats fanart inspired by Parov Stelar’s song Catgroove before now, why the hell not, it should not have taken this long for this to happen, people

july ‘19 vs september ‘19 

the drawing made in july is lacking on light reflections

the one done in september looks much better since i paid attention to them