When bad breeders show their true colours, they really show their colours.

You kinda forget, if you don’t work with them frequently, quite how abhorrent and shitty these people can be.

UA*Sweet Beast Colan

🐱 Genetta [Munchkin Limb Deformity]

📸 Sweet Beast

🎨 Black Rosetted Tabby

-_-

Let's take an absurdly active breed of cat with significant physical enrichment needs.... and make it unable to cat properly.

There is almost no fucking difference between this cat sitting and standing.

Why the fuck.

NOOOO WHAT IS THIS!

Waking up today was a mistake

*sobs in vet tech*

lopsided

Somehow… they’re already getting worse?

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!

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 sounds, 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.

Keep reading

this thing deserves to be a gelding

Something that will never stop getting on every last one of my nerves is when people describe their pets as misbehaving “on purpose” or out of “spite.”

All it tells me is that you’d rather anthropomorphize your pet over actually understanding and problem solving.

My main thing is dogs, who definitely do NOT do spite, revenge, or guilt. That last one is a big one because people confuse appeasement for it all the time, and it leads to a lot of bad training.

While I agree for dogs, cats on the other end definitely do things, that we don't like, on purpose to get our attention.

Like to op, tell me that you never had a cat without telling me that you never had a cat. I have seen my cat looking at me straight in the eyes while pushing a cup of coffee toward the edge of the table because I didn't give him the exact thing he wanted to eat. It's not spite, but it's definitely "I do that because I know it get your attention"

Nah, I’ve had three cats. And dogs do quite a bit of attention getting behaviour as well. Nice of you to assume I’m talking out of my ass, though.

Your cat did that because they know it gets a reaction from you. You don’t know that it’s because of not getting a specific kind of food. You can’t know that. I bet your cat also does that in plenty of other situations when it wants attention for something, yeah? Like play, or affection, or just because they like causing a reaction, which I should note is very different than doing something to get a reaction because of some other thing.

It’s the “because” here that I have a problem with. It’s attributing a level of revenge to cats, that they do not have the cognition to grasp, for an attention getting behaviour. Just like attributing a level of guilt to dogs, that they don’t have the cognition to grasp, if they give appeasement behaviour.

I watch these attitudes spill over into anger at animals. Into punishment that people get personal over. Beyond, “hey that’s not an appropriate way to get my attention,” to, “this cat is mean and does things to spite me.” I honestly think it really matters that we stop framing our pets as intentional bad-faith actors because they think we’ve wronged them somehow or because they want to spite us.

Honestly if a cat is particularly sensitive, a sudden change in food isn't going to make it try to get revenge. It's more likely just...not going to eat. And you can't wait that out, because sometimes they will actually starve themselves because they are not trying to make you give up. Cats do not starve themselves out of spite.

In cases like this, misunderstanding a cat's behavior is liable to get the animal killed. Because they will starve to death. And an anthropomorphizing owner will watch it happen because they don't understand that they're not in some battle of wits against a fucking cat.

It also masks severe health issues. No, your cat didn't suddenly stop eating to spite you. Check its teeth. Check its litterbox. Take it to the vet. Did something change in the house recently? How else is its behavior different? How is its breathing? Maybe it's stressed out because a new outdoor/feral cat is harrassing it through the windows. Maybe eating hurts because of a tooth or gum infection. Maybe it has an intestinal blockage. But anthropomorization of the animal's distress response will not fix any of these underlying issues. All of them are fixable, but only when they're noticed. And they are only noticed when one makes the effort to understand feline behavior as feline and not as human.

I just got a text from the AVA confirming a case of Hendra in New South Wales near Scone, which is a major horse area and significantly further south than it’s been identified before.

Unvaccinated elderly Mare. Euthanised.

That’s distinctly not good.

So some updates filtering through. I usually avoid horse medicine like the plague but, well, this particular plague is important to keep an eye on.

Quick and dirty facts about Hendravirus:

Read more HERE and about the legal difficulties for vets in Hendra regions HERE.

Mostly it was detected along the South East coast of Queensland. But this latest case, the one that has us all alerted, was in Scone. A rough map below.  

(Original map borrowed from here, added rough location of Scone)

So why is this so extra bad now?

Scone is way further south than Hendra has been detected before, even though the bats are everywhere.

And while I am not involved directly in the case, it appears that there were no new horses introduced to the property where this mare died. Waiting for an epidemiology report but it looks like she was infected in Scone. Hendra is in Scone.

Scone is also a major horse breeding region, and is part of the Hunter Valley, which is mostly known for its wineries. And where the wineries are, there’s recreational horseback riding.

So we have a region full of horses, in particular neonatal horses, and people with casual contact with those horses who probably don’t know a whole lot about Hendra, in a region that was not previously considered high risk and so didn’t push vaccination super strongly. And the movements around this case are being tracked so treatments can be administered as required.

So this is where we’re up to. Hoping a whole new, horse-heavy region will agree to vaccinate their horses, or vet clinics will refuse service to those unvaccinated horses.

This is because it is the vets, who can reasonably understand the biosecutiry risk of Hendra, are held responsible if there is an outbreak. So if you give a horse owner medication to administer, and it turns out that horse had Hendra, it’s the vet that gets prosecuted. And even if you advise that owner to wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), do you really trust an antivaxxer to wear that PPE properly without supervision? Most clinics do not, so deny services to unvaccinated horses other than to vaccinate or euthanise.

So that is where we’re at, at the moment. Basically anything in NSW north of Canberra is looking scary for Hendra.

“Grain-free sort of came about as a fad in human food,” Dr. Lindholm said. “It’s easy to sell a diet that’s grain-free and ‘we only put those 7 ingredients in there,’ it sounds really good but unfortunately there’s just no science behind doing it.”

Rabbits do not “play” like dogs and cats do, they are prey animals and have a very different body language.

This rabbit is not being played with, she is being harassed by her owner. Do not throw things at a prey animal, throwing stuff is attractive to dogs and cats because it triggers their prey drive! She definitely thinks she’s being attacked.

This rabbit is not wrestling with a dog, she is trying to defend herself from the dog! Rabbits do not wrestle as a form of play! This rabbit is so obviously threatened in this video!

Here is a video of a rabbit “playing” with a dog (though whether he is enjoying the dog, competing with it in a binky contest, or just tolerating it would be debatable)– and without the barrier the story would not be so cheery. Bunny play does not involve contact, they binky alongside one another or flop down beside one another but they do not play like dogs and cats!! Unless they are getting out a good case of the zoomies together (not jumping on one another, that is fighting!), rabbits prefer to stick to more passive play like cuddling and grooming their friends. Other than that they prefer to work on their toys alone.

If you’re in the US, in some places the owner will have to pay a fee to get it back from their local shelter. So I would be taking it to a shelter! Even if they don’t have to pay a fee to get it back, it’s still sending a sterner message than a vet clinic would - that their pet could end up at a shelter and adopted to somebody else forever if they don’t start keeping it inside.

Rest in peace, little Jor

(This post is from my old account, which I deleted. It happened a year ago, but the message is still the same, so I will reblog it again in his memory. If this can help anyone, It will be worth it)

For everyone that didn’t know me before hand, this little cuddle thing here is my boy, Jormundgandr.

Jor perished two days ago. There’s nothing that we could do to help him, I’m not asking for “likes” or “follows”, but I want to explain his story. I adopted him when he was barely 30cm long. He was a Python Regius, a specie around 165cm in his adulthood. He was a baby, but even then most people considered him dangerous. Because he was a snake. Because snakes have no feelings. Because pythons are stressed easily. Almost everybody told me to keep him in his terrarium almost constantly, but it seemed unfair to me. Instead of keeping the terrarium in the humidity and heat necessary to him, I heated the entire room, so Jor could roam all over the place. His favorite spots were in my lap when I was reading or around my headbed when we were sleeping. 

The first time I put him in the bureau to sleep, he grabbed a plushie and threw it to the ground. Hearing the noise, I went to see what happened, and immediately he leaped right into my arms, so I had to put him in my headrest. It being summer in my city, the temperature was adequate to him, so I promptly began to go everywhere with him, as he wouldn’t let go of my hair or clothes.

I travelled with him in the subway, went to the bank, to the supermarket, to take a drink… He usually went around my neck like a necklace or entangled himself in my hair or around my ponytail.

While I sat, he would cuddle with me. Most people were curious about a snake in the subway or in a café, but instead of becoming stressed, as he had been in the streets since a baby, he let everyone pet and grab him, sometimes even prompting himself strangers to initiate the contact. His behaviour towards me was very expressive. He recognized me out of everyone. When he was sleepy, he came to me. When he was thirsty, he told me. Sometimes he didn’t want people to pet him and he literally jumped into my arms. Jor didn’t like people touching his head, but let me kiss him on the mouth every time I was very happy or a bit nostalgic. He promptly began to sense my mood-swings and came over to me when I was a bit sad. But the most surprising was the time he sneaked on my (pun intended) friend’s cat. He saw him and wanted to play. Of course, the feline scratched him, playfully. But he didn’t bite, he didn’t attack, only curled himself up very scared. We went running to the vet, and he was fine, only a bit scratched. Only then the man noticed a little bite in his neck, from the mice that he was supposed to eat. He was so fucking docile that his own food attacked him instead of the opposite! But his scales were very bright, sign of healthy and happiness, the wounds cured quickly. But that wasn’t the surprise. When I entered the room where jor was being examined, he was curled in a little ball of misery, and then I approached him, crying. When the snake sensed my touch, uncurled, stretched his neck and deposited his little mouth to my lips, as he ever did when he felt my sadness. Jor made this same movement every time he saw me cry… And not only this. He ate with me, bathed with me, and even slept with me. Three different vets said to me that jormundgander was convinced I was his mom. In the last comic convention in my city, where I had a little shop, he came and stayed with me all day.

He was on the table, playing with the merchandise, cuddling with people and letting us dress him in little cosplays.

When tired he would simply hide in my mobile case for an hour or so and then came out again (unless there was a cat, he was terrified of them after the incident).

That day he decided that it wasn’t worth the trouble to drink from a bottle cap and began to drink directly from my lips. But a few days ago, he couldn’t breathe. Only then we found out that the little bite in his neck had healed, but let a minor infection inside him that expanded to his lungs. He was so happy all the time that his scales never faded as it happens with sick serpents and none suspected anything. And even when he was dying, with me crying as I held him in my arms, even when he was barely moving and didn’t let anyone touch him (when capable of moving), he cuddled in my lap, searching with his head to touch my skin and made little movements as if to say that he was fine. So for all the dickhead people outta here that think those animals are dangerous by birth, that they had no feelings nor are they capable of getting attached. What about all the cuddling, the baths, the shiny scales? The kisses when I was sad? Am I supposed to believe that this all was a misinterpretation? That what all the fucking people around me saw was an illusion? So I will only say one thing to everyone that says and thinks that snakes have no sentiments: That’s BULLSHIT! Maybe his feelings are way more primitive than ours, or that of dogs, but those are feelings nonetheless, and they matter. So this is the story of Jormurgander, the evidence that if you show your love to them since youth, they will return your feelings, and will be as loyal and lovely as any other pet.

Rest in peace, little Jor. I’m sure noone that has met you in your life will forget you.

First off, I’m so sorry that you’ve lost your snake. Normally I wouldn’t do this. Normally I wouldn’t invade somebody’s grief with an agenda, but what’s gone on here is very much a cautionary tale and I’d be frankly remiss if this gets traction with so much misinformation about snakes. I don’t want somebody to see this post and do what you did. This post poses a danger to other first-time snake owners. Everything you did, everything you did for your snake was dangerous. The sad fact is that this wouldn’t have happened if you had followed the care sheets and paid attention to the natural history and lifestyle of the species you chose to own. Instead, you treated him like an animal he is not- a human. I don’t doubt for one instant the love you had for your snake, but there’s a reason he died young and that reason was totally avoidable errors in husbandry. You literally loved your snake to death. Everything in your story is dangerous to snakes. Everything. I was hoping that much of it was exaggerated because had you really seen three vets who knew anything about reptiles, they would have told you that what you were doing was dangerous.

Let’s start with your basic husbandry. Ball pythons are from tropical Africa. They need high humidity and warm ambient temperatures. I really don’t think your room could support that. The warm end of his thermogradient needed to be a constant 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Can you honestly tell me you maintained 60% humidity and 95 degree temperatures in your bedroom? There’s a reason we keep ball pythons in terraria. It’s so we can provide safe and healthy microclimates for them. It’s so that we can control their world so that they are healthy. By forcing your snake to sleep with you and interact with you so constantly, you were taking away his ability to choose what part of a regulated microclimate he was existing in; you were forcing him to exist in this strange, uncomfortably dry world. I don’t know if you ever kept him in his terrarium- you didn’t say- but I do know that forcing him to sleep with you (instead of letting him roam around a nice big terrarium as a nocturnal animal would like to do) was extremely unhealthy. I’m going to guess that even though you say it was summer where you were he was chilly most of the time. And uncomfortable. Most of the time ball pythons like to climb, but you say he was constantly on you, cuddling. The cuddling? That’s not cuddling. When humans touch, it triggers a wave of oxytocin, the “bonding hormone.” It makes us feel good and happy.

Snakes don’t produce oxytocin.

What was happening was that you were warm. Your body temperature is 98.6 degrees, which is very cosy for a ball python. He wasn’t hugging you, he was leaching your body heat.

You taking him out in public was dangerous as well. What if some café owner had seen him and panicked and called Animal Control? Even if he’s an emotional support animal (which you did not mention him being), you don’t actually have the legally protected right to take him anywhere except on an airplane. He could have gotten sick from all the public contact. You say he wasn’t stressed, but how do you know? What do you think the stress behaviors of a ball python are?

It was also dangerous to ever allow him around a cat. Cats have gram-negative bacteria in their saliva. This gets under their claws and multiplies as they groom. Gram-negative bacteria have a protective layer that makes it harder for the immune system to fight off. As for his mice biting him… Why weren’t you feeding him frozen prey? Did you try? Let me guess, he refused to eat the frozen mice. He wasn’t not eating because he was docile, he wasn’t eating because he was constantly stressed. Snakes don’t eat when they’re scared or uncomfortable with their environment.

The shiny scales? Your snake had stuck shed. It’s not healthy for a snake to have a stuck shed. Stuck sheds are a sign of improper humidity or temperatures.

The baths were also a mistake. Snakes can’t thermoregulate like we do, so whatever temperature the water is at is what they’re stuck with. And we humans tend to run water much hotter than a snake is comfortable with. In general, you shouldn’t run the water for a snake’s bath (which should only happen rarely and when necessary- like if they have a stuck shed or crawled through their poop) any warmer than lukewarm- it should only feel mildly warm on the inside of your wrist. Tub cleaning chemicals and the chemicals in soap are also toxic to snakes, and if he consumed any of the water, even by accident, he could have fallen ill- which could have contributed to his demise.

And now I need to tell you about anthropomorphism, which is the primary reason I’m reblogging this post. Bad husbandry is correctible, but what’s really dangerous here is this mindset that your snake is as emotionally sophisticated as you think he is. Snakes don’t feel love. They can’t. They’re physically incapable of feeling love. They have emotions- aggression, curiosity, comfort- but they don’t love. You have attributed distinctly human emotions to an animal that literally does not have the brain structure or hormonal presence to feel these things. Even a mammal wouldn’t display many of the behaviors you attribute to this snake’s conscious decisions. Snakes can’t read your mind. They can maybe pick up on some body language- if you’re big and threatening, the snake will be scared, for instance, but he wasn’t picking up on your mood swings. He was just a snake doing snakey things. But by reading into his behavior with these human emotions, you created this image of a snake in your mind that’s more akin to the behavior of a snake in a fantasy novel. Snakes have emotions, but not the ones attributed in this post.

That snake didn’t think you were his mum. Ball pythons have no interactions with their parents post-hatching and there’s no evidence that they even recognize their parents. Snakes scatter pretty quickly because adult snakes of many species will eat baby snakes. I don’t actually believe that three vets told you in earnest that you were his mum- and if they did, I’d like their names so that the reptile community can know that these vets support dangerous anthropomorphism and make their veterinary choices accordingly. Responsible vets would never tell you that it’s ok to free-roam a ball python in a bedroom.

The kisses? Weren’t kisses. They were just your snake booping you with his face. My snake does that too and it’s not because he loves me, it’s because my mouth smells interesting and he’s curious. Snakes are gloriously curious and that’s part of the charm of owning one- to see how their natural behaviors allow them to thrive in our care. That’s if we provide what they need for their existence. There are millions of happy, healthy pet ball pythons in this world and none of them are sleeping with their owners. Instead, they’re living in terraria. They’re not jumping into their owners’ arms or kissing them on the lips; they’re engaging in natural behaviors in an unnatural environment and exploring things to satisfy their own curiosity, not your emotional needs.

So, yes. This was a misinterpretation. This was you placing human emotions on a snake. Everybody makes mistakes, but I just feel that had you read a single care sheet and thought for a moment about why the widely-accepted care practices are so widely accepted, this tragedy would not have happened. I hope you take this into consideration before buying another animal because keeping a snake this way will only end in the same emotionally devastating results. I know this hurts to hear- I know you really, truly loved your snake and you did what you thought was best for him. But sometimes what we think is the best because of our emotions isn’t the best for their care. Their physical well being depends on us. They can’t make choices about their care- they are pets. They don’t have that agency. It’s up to us as pet owners to do what’s right, and sometimes that means putting our emotions and desires aside for the sake of their physical health. Trust me, nobody knows that better than me. I lived this.

This is Kaiju. The love of my life. The best thing that’s ever happened to me.

She’s an Argentine black and white tegu, and I thought that I could free-roam her safely and happily. I set things up so that she had humid hides, hot spots, everything. This decision was made with what I thought was her best interest in mind- I thought that because she’s a big, active lizard that free-roaming would be good for her.

And then I saw this.

And I almost threw up when I did. This is an x-ray of Rex, a tegu who had been free-roamed for much longer than Kaiju. His owners treated him like a king- they gave him what he wanted to eat and let him roam and live with them like part of the family. But this took a toll on Rex, a price paid by his arthritic joints and digestive system and kinked spine. A price he could have paid with his life. I knew then that even though I was trying so hard to take good care of my baby, she was going to suffer if I kept things up. So I went out and got an enclosure and got honest with myself about what she really needed and got over my own ego and ideas to provide what was best for her, not me.

I’m so sorry to be the bearer of this bad news, but it’s the truth. We choose to bring these animals into our home; we take them and we make them ours, and providing the proper environment for them to thrive is the least we can do. This is truly the danger of anthropomorphism; when you start attributing these impossible emotions to your pets, you run the risk of forgetting who and what they really are.

REBLOGGING strictly for the response

You know what I’m never gonna forget

is how this person sent me a bunch of messages before they deleted

screaming at me for ruining their cosplay hobby

that was their takeaway from this whole situation. 

Coworkers: we did this snail project!!

Me: awesome!! That sounds great! *looks at snails*

Still me:

Dont say it

Dont say it

Dont say it

Dont say it

Dont say it

Dont say it

*takes a deep breath*

So the snails are eating each other because whoever we bought them from didnt give them a proper diet so theyre calcium deficient and im taking this guy home because im pretty sure his fam is gonna CRONCH through his shell overnight and kill him. Mash egg shells. Sprinkle them in. Theyre good to go.

My best friend, also colleague, running snail lab: yes that sounds great please do

Other colleagues: we will do that tomorrow. how can we set up a proper tank for them for long term keeping?

Me:

Every year I think I can watch the GSDs at Westminster. Every year I am wrong. 😢

I got 20 minutes in before I snapped these screenshots.

This dogs jock is entirely on the ground. The camera was at a bad angle so I could t tell if he moved this way but he definitely shouldn’t stand like that, even in an extreme show stack.

Here you can see the dog on the left standing how he stands normally (not stacked) this is why GSDs are stacked in a three point stack. Their hips and hind legs are so angulated that they can’t stand normally. You can also see on the dog in the middle that their legs are angled out from their bodies at an uncomfortable degree.

The fact that anyone thinks this is normal appalls me. Before anyone says that GSDs were meant to be like that, here’s a picture from 1915. *gasp* It looks like a dog!

100% agree!

Puma Rescued From A Contact-Type Zoo Can’t Be Released Into The Wild, Lives As A Spoiled House Cat

@why-animals-do-the-thing not sure if you’ve already seen this or not, but this post raises about a million red flags right?

Yes, absolutely. I’ve gotten tagged in this post a ton of times (not a bad thing!) so let’s take a look at it. This story is a prime example of how clickbait news sites perpetuate really dangerous interactions with animals as cute. 

I’m just gonna burst the bubble on this: Messi is not a rescue. Messi is an exotic pet - and one being managed in a very dangerous, irresponsible way. Period, full stop. 

Messi was one of three cougar cubs born at the Saransk city zoo in Russia, and involved in some sort of soccer fandom event. When it was over, all three cubs were given to the local “contact” zoo, wherever they were in Russia (I still haven’t been able to track down that facility’s name). The owners went to the zoo, saw the cub, and in their own words “decided they had to have him.” After thinking about it for a few days, they went back to the zoo and convinced them to let them purchase the cub. For whatever reason - whether Messi was sickly and they didn’t want to deal with it, as they say, or simply because it was profitable - the zoo sold them this cougar. Exotic pets are common in Russia, and they have to come from somewhere, so I’m really not surprised that a zoo would be willing to sell one of their animals if someone was really willing to pay.  That is not rescue. No matter how they or the media try to frame it, these people literally went “I want one” because cougar cubs are cute, and then followed through on it by buying him. 

There’s a whole bunch more in the IG thread they’ve posted about his history, but I’m not going to bother embedding the screenshots. Basically, it says: he was super sick and needed a lot of medical attention, they made their house nice for him, and then they started taking him to group dog training classes, and he can’t be released because of his health issues. Let’s break that down. 

Yes, it’s imaginable he was really sick when they got him. The images I’ve seen of the cubs when they were first brought in for the promotion show very, very young animals that are no longer with their mother. According to the posts by the owner, Messi has had issues with underdeveloped cartilage, bone density, and other indicatiors of malnutrition; you can see in photos how messed up Messi’s conformation is even now. I genuinely don’t know if the zoo would have kept him alive with those health issues or if they intended to euthanize him, but it’s really important here to note that the zoo was not looking to rehome Messi to someone who would care for him - he was simply lucky that this couple decided they wanted a pet and offered to buy him. 

The way he’s being managed is utterly irresponsible and is setting them up for a tragedy. Yes, they built a lovely indoor setup for him that most domestic housecats would love - but Messi is still a wild animal with  wild instincts, and allowing him to free-roam in a house with people and interact (even on a leash!) with small animals is dangerous. Remember that spreadsheet of all the maulings and deaths caused by pet big cats in the US I’ve got? Cougars are the second-most common species for involvement in incidents. He may be small for a cougar, but he still has claws and teeth and predatory instincts that no amount of “love” can erase. At some point they will kick in, and either a person or another animal will get hurt. 

Yeah, that screenshot looks like a totally positive interaction between Messi and the housecat. Notice there’s small dog that’s running around unrestrained at the bottom right during the interaction. 

My biggest issue with this whole thing is the way they take him out in public. If they want to endanger themselves and their pets, that’s one thing. But what they choose to do with this cat in public is dangerous and irresponsible. It angers me no end that it’s being lauded as super-cute by so many American media outlets when - if you did anything similar with any big cat in the United States - it would either be illegal or you’d be facing some serious problems with regards to public endangerment. I guess it’s cute when it’s in another country that we don’t feel the need to hold responsible for their animal management practices, right?

One, they take this cat out in public all the time. They don’t secure it when driving (good luck not getting mauled if you’re in an accident and the cat is in pain / escapes), they walk it into pet stores like it’s a domestic animal (and just have to hope it doesn’t go after any of the other pets?), and they take him to fucking group dog training classes. In the extended history that I didn’t bother to screenshot all of, they tell basically this story: they couldn’t find anyone who had ever worked with cougar, so they went to this one guy who had worked with a bobcat once, and then they started taking him to group dog training classes after a while. I’m sorry, but are they actively trying to get other people’s pets killed?? Predatory drift is real, and being in a small enclosed space with a lot of other small animals whose behavior is unpredictable is a great way to set that cat up for failure. Everything they’re doing with that cat is just so stupid and irresponsible I can’t even with it. 

Lastly, the claim he can’t go “back to the wild” because of his size is bullshit. That cat can’t be released into the wild because a) cougar are not native to Russia and b) he’s been hand-raised, used for promotional material, tamed, and kept as a housecat. It’s not probable that he even knows how to hunt, and if he was somehow released into the US, he’d turn into a nuisance animal - one that seeks out humans for resources and/or companionship - almost immediately. 

The way Messi is being kept goes against every scientifically-backed standard for responsible big cat management. (I can tell you with pretty decent surety that even the people I know who have circus or private non-professional big cat ownership backgrounds would think it’s inappropriate and dangerous. I know it goes against the standards and best practices of even those professional institutions that do allow things like free contact work with big cats). Just because it looks cute does not mean it is safe or an appropriate way to interact with an exotic animal. I’m not kidding that, if you tried even a fraction of what they do with Messi in the US - even just admitting that you have a pet cougar you’re free contact with in a state where that’s legal - the harassment, protesting, and potential lawsuits wouldn’t end until that cat was removed. However, slap a “rescue” label on the situation, put a bunch of cute photos online, and suddenly the internet decides that all welfare and safety concerns somehow no longer apply. So much so that his story is being shared by sites like OneGreenPlanet, which are rabidly against animals being cared for professionally in zoos but apparently fine with people having exotic pets. After all, Messi is now famous on IG and Youtube, and I’m sure his owners are cashing in on his popularity: until someone gets injured or killed because of his owner’s management practices, the groups writing feature articles about Messi don’t have to think critically about what they’re promoting because the word “rescue” is involved. I just feel really bad for the people who will, inevitably, try to emulate Messi’s owners and set themselves up for a tragedy. 

“Manx Syndrome”

So we’ve talked about Scottish folds and Persians (and other brachy breeds), but I haven’t seen a lot of talk about manx cats. 

oh my gosh, isn’t she cute? :D  Just look at that little tuft of fur on her butt!  She doesn’t have a tail!  Who else wants to go out and get like a million little bunny cats?

Stop.  It’s time to talk about Manx Syndrome.  The name itself is a bit of a misnomer, since it doesn’t just affect manx cats (or even EVERY manx kitty; Nala exhibited only very mild symptoms).  Cymrics are also affected. For simplicity’s sake, it’s often just called Manx Syndrome. What it IS, is a form of spina bifida.

Tail development is highly linked to spine and spinal cord development.  When a cat is bred to lack a tail, they’re being bred for abnormal development of coccygeal (tail) and sacral vertebrae (the spinal cord just in front of the tail).  It can also affect vertebrae further up the spine in particularly severe cases.

This can cause some pretty serious issues including urinary incontinence, chronic diarrhea, constipation, and their hind limbs may not function properly.  We also see megacolon or rectal prolapse in these cats—- the fact that they lack the tail muscle also means they lack certain colon muscles, resulting in a failure to push poop out.  The more serious symptoms are generally present by the time a kitten is 6 months old.  They’re usually euthanized at that stage.  If they aren’t, they will usually end up wearing diapers their whole lives (or require manual manipulation to poop, if they’re constantly constipated; this is, needless to say, extremely unpleasant for everyone involved) and require very frequent bathing.

In manx cats, there are varying tail lengths:

As you get shorter and shorter, the likelihood of spina bifida increases.  I still see cats with tails affected by manx syndrome.  A study done in 1979 (warning: study includes pictures of internal organs and dissections) produced nine rumpy cats, three rumpy risers, fourteen stumpies and eighteen longy Manxes.  All of the rumpies had MS, two of the rumpy risers did, and only one of the stumpies had it.  The longies were almost unaffected— they still presented with more arthritis in their tail than typical cats, though.  So having just a few vertebrae protected these cats from the worst effects of MS.

Taillessness is caused by the M gene.  It’s an autosomal dominant gene, so a cat needs only one to present with tail-abnormalities; this means a cat with Mm will not have a tail, while a cat with mm will HAVE a tail.  A cat who develops with MM dies in utero.  They simply don’t develop.  Honestly, the fact that it’s a lethal combo is pretty telling, so let’s get into detail EXACTLY WHY IT’S LETHAL.

And this is because the M gene punches holes in some pretty important codes.  So think of a vertebrae like a pizza pocket: you got the bone on the outside, then there’s a membrane (meninges), and finally there’s bundles of nerves on the inside. But the M gene can cause holes in the bone, exposing the meninges.  The meninges can be squeezed through the holes (called “Meningoceles”), which puts a lot of pressure on the nerves inside.  You know, kinda like when you squeeze a stress toy. 

So a cat with MM would develop with LOTS of these holes, exposing the meninges, while a cat with Mm only develops SOME holes exposing the meninges.  That’s… that’s still pretty bad.  The ideal number of holes is zero.  Now, these meningoceles CAN naturally heal over time, but the cats often still exhibit urinary incontinence and other issues associated with Manx Syndrome (see the 1979 study linked above).

“Ok, but could we just… breed Manx cats to have longer tails?”

Unfortunately, we can’t.  The M gene is highly penetrating and inconsistent.  Even if it’s not causing a visible abnormality (ie, lack of tail), it’s still frequently present.  This means that even a long-tailed manx still presents issues such as tail kinks.  Stumpy cats also tend to develop arthritis at a higher rate than typical cats— you can even feel it in their tails sometimes.  They’re so stiff, it’s like grasping a stick.  Vets may even opt for amputation to reduce the pain.  Considering phantom limb syndrome, even this may not help.

Now, the good news is that there are short-tailed cats WITHOUT Manx Syndrome.  The Japanese and American bobtail breeds both get their little cute tails from a completely separate mutation and, as far as I can tell, it’s harmless.  I’m not certain about the Kurilian bobtail.

If you have your heart set on a manx kitty, please, PLEASE go to a rescue and be aware of what to ask.  Be sure to ask if the cat has any symptoms and be prepared to handle them if they develop later in life.  Even if your breeder-produced kitten turns out just fine, there could be many more that didn’t make it.  One healthy kitten isn’t worth the price of suffering.  Breeding should be done to improve a breed, including their health, not merely to stick to the standard perfectly.  If the breed includes an inherent amount of suffering, it should not be reproduced further.