What are reasons people breed their cats?

fiery

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So. I'm writing a paper on why people should spay and nueter their pets.

I was all ready to write this paper. Totally. But now my teacher has given us an assignment that makes us look at the opposing view, aka why people *should* breed their pets and not spay/nueter them.

I'm not happy about this. I could come up with some stuff, but the issue is that she wants me to find academic, scholarly research to support this.

This is going to be so difficult.
Does anyone have any ideas? One thing that will be helpful is that I'm not for most inbreeding, but I'll be able to find stuff that support line-breeding or whatnot. Now I just need two more ideas as to why people should breed, and who should and should not do it..

If you have any suggestions, that'll be helpful. This is supposed to help with my argument, but.. dang it, I already know this stuff and why. Which kind of sucks now.
 

goldenkitty45

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Are you asking why people breed pets, or legit breeders breed to improve? I'll give you the "excuses" first.

People breed:

1. To make a few extra bucks cause they have a "purebred" cat or a pretty, nice, special, wonderful temperment (fill in the blank).

2. To get a cat just like......the one they lost, their fav, the mom, etc.

3. Because they think all cats should have one litter before being spayed as it makes a nicer cat; or that the cats will miss motherhood if not bred.

4. Because they think they own the worlds most unique, smart cat and this is a good reason.

5. Because they can't afford spaying/neutering.


On the other side, legit breeders breed:

1. To preserve the lines
2. To improve the breed (health wise or temperment wise
3. To strengthen or increase the gene pool with healthy cats
4. To show and get awards
5. To strive for the perfect example of the breed


Does that help you out?
 

sakura

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I really don't think there *is* academic scholarly research to not support the spaying/neutering of pets outside of a legitimate breeding program. There are a few thing I can think of for this paper you are writing though (none of which I agree with, of course):

- Maybe there is some wacko academic out there who thinks that people shouldn't interfere with nature. Some sort of biology research on how animal populations will take care of themselves, numbers-wise. That spaying/neutering isn't necessary because overpopulation problems take care of themselves.

- something about too much in-breading and how that hurts the animals' health

- maybe something about how people should breed their pet animals because that means more people can enjoy the benefits of owning a pet. Also, children can witness the miracle of birth with an animal.

- Another argument against the average pet owner spaying/neutering could be that legislation shouldn't interfere with what people do with their own "property."

- maybe there is some article out there about the income that people can make off of breeding? (even though we all know you can't make $ doing it the right way, but backyard breeders typically don't breed the 'right' way)


You really have to clarify that you are focusing on the average pet owner outside of a legitimate breeding program. I would write a brief paragraph on the difference between the average pet owner breeding and a legitimate breeding program breeding, and the reasons why a legitimate breeder breeds (like to improve the line).
 

sarahp

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Maybe your paper can focus on breeders and their reasons, with a small section on why non-breeders are doing it, and the scholarly research on why THOSE are invalid reasons?
 

goldenkitty45

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That twisty article is very mind blowing. I didn't know Germany had that much of a ban on the breeds.

The rexes in particular - doesn't Germany realize they had their own country's mutation in the German rex (which can be bred to Cornish)?????? Cat's do NOT need whiskers to get around - I bred rexes - they are capable of walking in the dark and are not damaged by the curly whiskers.


Geezzzzzzzz I didn't know it was this bad on what you can/can't breed - they want to wipe out all pedigree cats at this rate!
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by Sakura

- Maybe there is some wacko academic out there who thinks that people shouldn't interfere with nature. Some sort of biology research on how animal populations will take care of themselves, numbers-wise. That spaying/neutering isn't necessary because overpopulation problems take care of themselves.
like Desmond Morris? in his book, Catlore, he advocates against spay/neuter...

quote from book: How has it come about that we are prepared to describe a serious physical mutilation as a trivial adjustment? ... Our sexless... cats will now give us the perfect companionship we seek. ...The better way to handle the situations is to render the cats infertile without actually neutering them. For the female this means cutting or tying her fallopian tubes. this prevents her from becoming pregnant but does not interfere with her love life. For the male it means a vasectomy - the cutting or tying of the male's sperm ducts. this prevents him from supplying sperm to fertilize his females, but again it does nothing else. It does not make him docile or lazy, nor does it interfere with his sexual activities.
altho, to be fair, he does not advocate allowing your cat to remain fertile.
 

sol

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

That twisty article is very mind blowing. I didn't know Germany had that much of a ban on the breeds.

The rexes in particular - doesn't Germany realize they had their own country's mutation in the German rex (which can be bred to Cornish)?????? Cat's do NOT need whiskers to get around - I bred rexes - they are capable of walking in the dark and are not damaged by the curly whiskers.


Geezzzzzzzz I didn't know it was this bad on what you can/can't breed - they want to wipe out all pedigree cats at this rate!
It's not illegal to breed rexes in Germany. It's just illegal to breed cats without whiskers (along with some other "defects"). Rexes can have whiskers and there are no problems breeding them. I fins the information on that site to be somewhat... not always correct. For those interested the whole treaty can be read here.

You can see which coutries that have signed the treaty here. Since I'm Swedish and Sweden has signed the treaty I can tell you that there's been no changes done here since we signed the treaty. We had a very well written animal protection law already (since 1988). Extreme Persians are being bred here, Rexes of all sorts, naked cats of all sorts, Scottish Folds, Manxes etc. No breed is banned BUT we breeders are obligated not to breed sick/defect animals or healthy animals who have proven to produce sick/defect offspring.

This to protect animals from unnecessary suffering.
 

goldenkitty45

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Ok, thanks for the clearing up - but on rexes, the whiskers are fragile and tend to break off, or mom seems to chew them. I don't remember any of my rex kittens that were born without whiskers tho. Many of them had shorter or very curly whiskers.
 

sol

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Ok, thanks for the clearing up - but on rexes, the whiskers are fragile and tend to break off, or mom seems to chew them. I don't remember any of my rex kittens that were born without whiskers tho. Many of them had shorter or very curly whiskers.
I know the whiskers on rexes can be fragile, but the main thing is that the cat has whiskers.

My rexes usually do develop full, wavy and strong whiskers but as long as they live with their mother the mother constantly chew them off so you wouldn't be able to tell they have nice whiskers.
 

moonandstarkatz

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Breeding is done for so many reasons and so is spay/neuter. There is a bottom line in cats to spay/neuter or breed. A female will cycle eternally if not bred and can come down with pyometra (no fun and very expensive to treat). Dogs to can get pyometra.

Now reasons to breed are: developing a new breed in a formal breeding program, working to strengthen or increase diversity within a breed, to develop show lines OR as was the case in the first hybrids and the colony at UC Davis for feline research that will contribute to curing human illnesses and felines.

Reasons to not breed and to counter the argument on why cats "enjoy" or "should" be bred outside the shelter problem is placing kittens can be incredibly difficult, its hard on a female to carry and birth kittens and could risk her life and the most painful part is that a stud cat has barbs on his parts and thats why a female yowls when she is mated. Considering those factors and to top that off, a tomcat sprays (most do) and the mating calls of both sexes is absolutely awful. Ask anyone with an in house breeding program, there are personal space, time and sanity sacrafices to be made. I love my cats and breed to better the breed, to show, and to allow folks with allergies to have pets, as well as for my personal enjoyment.

Now the larger breeder may be breeding for money and that may fly with dogs, but in cats the more cats you have the higher the cost. Dogs are pack animals, cats are not. Anytime there is a group, you have stress and vet bills don't go down as the numbers go up. Numbers go up so do risks. Of course you should visit Dr Addies site on FIP, check out HCM Research at Washington State and the American Feline Practictioners Association for more info. I would not use HSUS statistics, check out consumer freedom for more info there.

Hope some of that helps.
Daisy
 
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