A framework to refocus the conversation around the welfare of UK purebred cats

Previously, consideration of purebred cat welfare has focused heavily on links between specific breeds and their predispositions to disease, extreme morphology, and behavioural traits. While these are certainly important to consider, negative messaging about purebred cats is often poorly evidenced and can be alienating to owners and breeders, with consequent limited or even negative welfare gain. Negative focus on individual breeds also risks overlooking the wider picture, where propagation of genetic traits that impinge upon welfare should be avoided across all cats (Felis catus). An account of purebred cat welfare must also consider husbandry and breeding practices, new experimental breeds and motivations behind changing acquisition trends. This review used a framework based on the five welfare needs from UK legislation, bolstered by published feline quality of life assessment tools, to review the literature on purebred cats. This aimed to re-orient the discussion on purebred cat welfare away from excessive focus on individual breed statements and instead explore broader, generalisable evidence-based welfare considerations. The review concludes that purebred cat welfare in the UK falls short of ideal in numerous ways. These include more obvious conformational concerns, such as osteochondrodysplasia in Scottish Folds and the increasingly flattened faces of brachycephalic cats. Several areas where strong evidence is lacking were also identified, including current breeding conditions, impact of morphological changes on social behaviour, and the breeding and keeping of hybrid cats. More evidence on the motivations behind owning cats with specific morphology is also required to better target interventions to improve the lives of cats.