happy pride to those foxes but DO NOT SUPPORT THIS “RESCUE”
SaveaFox is absolutely terrible. They have literally cooked one of their animals alive because the owner didn’t feel like bringing him inside. They paid their employees partially in cat food while the head of the organization gave herself an 85K salary. There’s absolutely mountains of evidence that this isn’t a legitimate rescue- would you say that somebody who goes around buying foxes at full price from fur farms is a rescue? Hell no it’s not, it’s keeping the farms she claims to hate in business!
I have nothing at all against responsible and ethical breeders of animals, but experimental cat breeds are just a monument to the human potential for evil.
I don’t think curly or wiry coats have anything wrong with them that affects the cat’s health, so that’s probably fine. but shit like this?
Brachycephalic (smashed-in-face) cats are bad enough because their skulls are deformed and they can’t breathe properly. Scottish folds have folded ears because of a cartilage mutation that affects the animal’s whole body.
If it is causing the animal to suffer you shouldn’t intentionally breed more cats like that but this is an entire new level
So many new “cat breeds” are just combinations of multiple mutations that each affect the cat’s quality of life negatively
I don’t know if there are serious problems with hairlessness, but munchkin cats shouldn’t be a thing. A disabled cat is one thing, but there are ethical problems with making more disabled cats on purpose
It is a naturally occurring mutation that was made into a breed. All munchkin cats are descended in some way from a single cat with this mutation (though that’s not the only time it’s known to have happened). So it is the product of selective breeding in that if people didn’t breed them on purpose, there would be only a small handful of them if any
this is in no way directed at nogoodnikolai (I never want to discourage questions or curiosity), but the phrase ‘naturally occurring mutation’ is a pet peeve of mine.
there’s a natural occurring mutation in goats that causes them to be born inside out. ‘natural’ does not equal ethical or healthy, it just means that it happens outside of human interference. besides which, a mutation stops being naturally occuring the moment humans decide to selectively propagate it, which is the case for the munchkin gene.
also just a note about the Scottish Fold, and many apologies to headspace-hotel if this is a misreading on my part*, but their face shape is actually alright! it’s definitely Brachycephalic, meaning shorter than average, but not extreme enough to cause any harm at this point. I only say this because Scottish Straights, with the same face shape, are a breed I want to encourage as a healthy alternative to the Scottish Fold. Maru the box cat is a famous example of this breed!
*EDIT: I was mistaken, that’s a photo of a Foldex and not a Scottish Fold! Foldex do have extreme brachycephaly, sorry for the confusion
it’s the Persian/Exotic/Himalayan family of cats that has an extreme enough Brachycephaly to cause damage to the brain, eyes, teeth, and respiration. seriously, this is like body horror to me.
there was a clinical study that compared normal cats, brachycephalic cats (specifically doll-faced Persians, which are at a similar brachycephaly to Scottish Folds), and extremely flat-faced Persians. the normal cats and doll-faced Persians were clinically sound, but the extreme Persians….. I don’t know how anyone can read those results and not want legal consequences to fall on the folk who continue breeding them. I’ll put it under a readmore, because it’s a bit disturbing.
