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The Scottish Fold is a lovely cat, but unfortunately suffers from health problems related to its breeding. Cat image from www.shutterstock.com

Cats are one of the world’s favourite pets, but in our efforts to breed more attractive felines, we are metaphorically loving them to death.

Like British Bulldogs and extreme styles of pigeons, some cats bred to please a human sense of beauty suffer from serious health problems. This is the case for a particularly lovely cat, the Scottish Fold.

It has long been known that breeding Scottish Folds risks health problems, but research is mounting that it is impossible to mitigate this risk. It is time to ban the breeding of this type of cat, as other nations have done.

Why so cute?

The Scottish Fold is a rare feline breed. It originated when a naturally occuring mutant cat was born in Scotland during the last century, at a farm near Coupar Angus in Perthshire. The cat had forward-folding ears because her ear cartilage wasn’t rigid enough to support her ears.

Her name was Susie and she looked cute. Cute enough that, in a great UK tradition, they wanted to preserve the mutation by breeding her with British short-haired cats and local farm cats. And so the Scottish Fold was born.

Why do people like cats with floppy ears? Many authorities think this is because of the Lorenzian theory of beauty, named in honour of Konrad Lorenz who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on ethology, the study of animal behaviour.

Most people, especially children, find a round face resembling that of a human comforting, whereas the longer snout and erect ears (of, say, a wolf) is potentially frightening. For this reason, many people find the appearance of owls pleasing to the eye, which is why they have owl cafes in Tokyo, and why so many people collect owl figurines.

So a Scottish Fold looks owl-like, and for many people this is a highly desirable trait.

Tracing the mutation

It didn’t take long for veterinarians and scientists to figure out that if the cartilage in the ear was defective, then cartilage in the joints might also be dodgy. The British geneticist Oliphant Jackson demonstrated this unequivocally in a most elegant series of classic genetic and radiological experiments in a hospital basement in the 1970s.

Cats, like people, have two copies of most genes. Jackson showed that cats like Susie (and her daughter Snooks), which both had a single copy of the postulated defective gene, were reasonably normal.

In contrast, cats with two copies of the dud gene developed crippling arthritis from an early age. Sensibly, Jackson suggested the breeding of such cats be banned, and that’s what happened in the UK and France.

But some Scottish Folds were exported to the US. Unfortunately, in that jurisdiction breeding was allowed, with the proviso that a Scottish Fold only be mated to a Scottish Shorthair (a normal cat with a similar genetic background, but with normal ears and hence normal cartilage). This type of mating resulted in half of each litter of kittens (on average) having folded ears, the other half being Scottish Shorthairs. And so the breed went on.

In the early 1990s a group of Australian veterinarians demonstrated convincingly that all Scottish Fold cats have abnormal bone development of their distal limbs. This is generally associated with early onset and accelerated progression of osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease) in joints of the distal limbs and tail. The ankle and wrist were the joints most obviously affected, especially the ankles.

In time all Folds develop adverse changes. This work was confirmed and extended subsequently by Japanese and Korean investigators. Yet Scottish Folds are still bred in the US, Asia and even Australia.

Two years ago a collaboration between Australian, European and American researchers uncovered the science behind the problem. Their research was recently published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage.

The problem lies in a gene that affects cells involved with pressure and pain sensing within cartilage. Children with a very similar genetic defect have comparable bone deformities to affected Scottish Fold cats.

What does this mean for the cats?

Scottish Shorthairs have normal ears and are completely healthy. They are lovely, sweet-natured cats.

Scottish Folds have shortened limbs, an abnormal gait, a peculiar and sometimes stiff or painful tail, and the propensity to develop osteoarthritis at an earlier age. This causes variable lameness (often severe) and secondary deformity.

The truth is, we have known since Jackson’s work in the 1970s that breeding Scottish Fold cats is ethically indefensible.

Yet the practice has continued in most jurisdictions, with cat breeders and veterinarians turning a blind eye to the frequently obvious problems.

While there are still questions to be answered, we already possess sufficient information to know that breeding these cats is cruel. Vets and cat breeders who condone this practice have no scientific basis with which to defend this practice. They are not breeding cats – they are perpetuating a disease state.

What to do

The breeding of Scottish Folds has been effectively banned in Victoria. It should be the same in every state of Australia and every country overseas.

In my opinion, the RPSCA should seek out people who advertise these cats for sale and prosecute them.

We cannot condone breeding cats because it’s in our nature to think they are cute, when pain and suffering will afflict a substantial proportion of these cats for much of their life, with ongoing requirements for medication and sometimes even radiation therapy or surgery.

Scottish Shorthairs have the same sweet personality and behavioural features of Scottish Folds, but they don’t get the joint issues. These could be bred and shown in the place of the Folds. They are lovely cats.

The solution is that simple. It’s time to stop pussyfooting around.

Richard Malik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

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Native bees are just some of the wildlife found in your backyard. MirandaKate/Flickr, CC BY-NC

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Whether you live in an urban apartment or a rural homestead, your outdoor area is more than just a private space. Ecologically, a garden is another jigsaw piece in the landscape.

Whatever their size, gardens can contribute to natural functions and processes in the local area, such as regulating water drainage, buffering the damaging effects of strong winds, or providing food and shelter for native wildlife.

Many wildlife species survive in urban areas, but their presence and persistence depend on how specific their food and shelter needs are, how they respond to disturbances, and the quality and quantity of other green spaces in the landscape.

For larger animals, such as birds and mammals, a home garden could become a stepping stone across an otherwise hostile urban landscape. For smaller animals, such as insects, it could be the centre of their home range.

In urban areas, where space is often limited, gardening with pollinators in mind is a simple way to encourage biodiversity in the backyard. And, depending on the surrounding landscape, habitat for pollinators will also be habitat for other animals.

Butterflies are important pollinators in backyards. John Tann/Flickr, CC BY Flowers are just the first step

Flowers produce sugar (nectar) and protein (pollen), the main diet for many adult insects and birds. Unlike other insect groups, native bee larvae develop almost exclusively on pollen collected by their parents, so flowers are essential to grow native bee populations.

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Native plants are an ideal option for attracting native pollinator insects and birds, but many garden exotics, especially herbs, fruit and vegetable plants, are just as popular. Modern hybrid varieties should be chosen carefully, as some are bred for commercial fruit or flower traits (like size or colour), but the flowers lack the nectar or scent cues that attract pollinators looking for food.

Native plants can attract birds, such as this New Holland honeyeater. Cazz/Flickr Build it and they will come

The structure and design of a garden can determine what wildlife species will visit or make a home. Vertical structure, built from multiple layers of different plant heights, provides more spaces for wildlife to co-exist. Small plants and shrubs provide good shelter for insects and very small birds, while larger trees will attract visits from more mobile birds and mammals.

Large trees with rough or shedding bark that creates lots of cracks and crevices are excellent shelter for insects and small lizards. Trees that produce resins and sap flows, such as conifers, acacias and eucalypts, are also useful for some native bee and wasp species that use resin to seal their nest cells.

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Insect hotels attract wood-nesting insects. Insect hotel image from www.shutterstock.com

It can be difficult to build all of this into small gardens, but many pollinator insects will have home ranges of a few hundred metres, while birds and mammals can travel much further. So landscape composition can also influence the wildlife potential of an individual garden. A high proportion of paved areas can reduce the number of wild bees or native birds in the neighbourhood. Highly manicured green spaces can also have a negative effect on wild bee species.

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Many of the animals and plants we think of as a backyard nuisance often provide services we don’t see. For example, many native wasp and fly species (even blowflies!) are pollinators as adults. And as larvae, they control many of the insect pests we see on our plants, or decompose organic wastes. Small reptiles, like geckoes and skinks, mostly feed on small insects that annoy us, like mosquitoes and midges.

Plants we think of as lawn weeds, particularly dandelions and clover, are a favourite food source for native bees and hoverflies. Aphids and scale insects also produce a sugary substance called honeydew as they suck on plants, which is an important sugar source for some beneficial insects like wasps, bees, ants and hoverflies.

Aphids produce sugars which are an important food source for other insects. ron_n_beths pics/Flickr, CC BY-NC

Limiting synthetic chemical use is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to enhance wildlife in gardens. Insecticides can kill beneficial insects, or affect them indirectly by disrupting their metabolism or reproductive cycles. Overuse of herbicides removes important food resources, like dandelions, that pollinators rely on if other flowers are scarce.

There is also the potential for chemicals to work in combination and have a greater impact.

Managing gardens as ecosystems

Many wildlife don’t like regular disturbances, which is why urban areas can be intimidating environments for animals. It can be hard to balance human needs with the habitat needs of wildlife. Many actions that minimise risks for humans can have the opposite effect for wildlife.

For example, pollinators generally prefer open grassy areas to dark forested areas. In urban environments, grassed areas are often mown regularly for human recreational and safety needs. This affects the availability of flowers for pollinators and also affects the persistence of these plant species. Mowing less often and outside peak flowering times can make a big difference for plants and pollinators.

Leaving a few weeds in the lawn can be a good thing for pollinators. tuchodi/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Similarly, large old trees are homes to myriad animals. Unless they pose a very real risk of danger to human lives, pruning overhanging branches can be better for the local ecosystem than removing the whole tree.

Wildlife are rarely deterred by fences, so it is likely that most of the animals you see in your yard are also using your neighbours’ yards. Managing gardens as a collective landscape, rather than individual gardens, can keep wildlife happy while also enhancing neighbourhood communication.

Manu Saunders is affiliated with the Institute for Land Water & Society and is co-founder of the Wild Pollinator Count.

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