A petition by the Isle of Wight Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, calling for the Government to ban the breeding of exotic cats with domestic cats in the UK, has been delivered to Downing Street.
A delegation from the Wildheart Trust, which runs the sanctuary, travelled to London last week to meet with MPs and Lords.
Their petition has been signed by more than 15,000 people. The ‘SERVIVAL’ campaign seeks to make the UK one of the few countries in the world to ban this form of breeding, which produces hybrid cats to be sold on the domestic market.
Fetching up to £20,000 per kitten, this practice can be lucrative, leading to illicit activity and ultimately poor welfare for all the animals involved.
The Wildheart Trust had first-hand experience of the fall out from this practice when it received two rescued Servals that were found with broken and deformed bones in a flat in France.
Destined to be part of the illegal pet trade and likely to be bred with domestics to produce the Savannah cat, such stories are becoming common place thanks to the soaring popularity of these animals as pets.
This popularity is driven by unregulated social media adverts and celebrity influencers choosing to keep them as the next fashionable asset.
Lawrence Bates, Chief Operating Officer of the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, said:
“A practice such as this has no place in a forward thinking nation of animal lovers. Indeed every MP and Lord we met during our recent trip to London was shocked to discover that it is still legal in the UK and all have pledged to support an amendment to ban it.
"It is incomprehensible to think that the law allows people to manufacture new types of animal, creating powerful predators that pose a significant threat to our native species."
The campaign has shone a spotlight on the many issues associated with the hybrid cat trade.
The Trust says being only a few generations away from a wild animal, Savannah cats do not make for good pets. Territorial urine spraying, hyper stimulation, increased aggression and separation issues are just some of the problems reported to the Trust from owners who are struggling to deal with an animal that is caught in a twilight world between wild and domestic.
Compounding the issue is the fact that some cat rescue centres will not accept Savannah cats, owing to their wild nature, leaving no support network for owners who find themselves unable to cope.
In addition, Savannah cats display significantly different behavioural traits from truly domesticated cats, which makes them a much larger threat to UK native species than breeds that have been domesticated for thousands of years.
Many other non-native animals that pose a threat to wildlife are strictly regulated by UK legislation, yet these wild animal hybrids slip through the net, meaning such prolific and powerful predators are free to be bred and unleashed on UK wildlife without recourse.
To learn more about the campaign visit the Wildheart Trust’s campaign website at www.wildheartanimalsanctuary.com/servival.
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