Cat lovers want to legalize hybrids

In recent years, a spate of breeds founded on crosses between wild and domestic cats have become intensely popular, in part because of their exotically patterned coats. Bengals (whose ancestry leads back to the Asian leopard cat) are now one of the most popular breeds at shows sanctioned by The International Cat Registry, or TICA, which recognizes breeds with “wild blood.” Savannahs, based on the African serval, are inching up in popularity. Lesser known are Chausies (pronounced “chow-sees”), derived from the jungle cat, and Safaris, from the South American Geoffrey’s cat.

In all these breeds, first-generation offspring — called F-1s — result from crossing a wildcat and a domestic. Subsequent generations, which are almost always bred to domestic cats, are similarly labeled: F-2, F-3, etc. Once a cat is an F-4 — that is, has a great-great-grandparent as its closest wild relative — TICA labels it an “SBT,” short for “studbook tradition,” meaning it can compete in the show ring and is considered fully domestic.

Back to Nix and Mazi, both F-1s owned by Kara McCormick of Long Island. In 2005, New York State’s Environmental Conservation Law was amended, making all hybrid cats like them illegal. A later amendment limited to this any wildcat offspring that is an F-5 or lower — in order words, more closely related to a wildcat than great-great-grand-kitten.

Nix and Mazi are legal, only because McCormick applied for a permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation to have them grandfathered in. But she has made it her mission to change the law to accept “early generation” hybrids. And she’s gotten some traction: Assemblyman Marc Alessi has sponsored a bill that exempts hybrid cats from being defined as “wildlife”; it is currently in the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee.

The current law’s proponents acknowledge there have been no recorded attacks involving hybrid cats of any generation, but that the sorta-wild things raise questions about humane care and disease transmission. (Although what person who pays US$3,000 for a rare Savannah is going to let it roam outdoors? It’s beyond me.)

“Obviously, the ASPCA opposes owning wild animals as pets,” says attorney Stacy Wolf, the group’s legislative director, who worked on the amendment that set the fifth-generation rule. “And that line has to be drawn somewhere.”

But where, exactly? Not surprisingly, the folks who actually live with these cats have a very different perspective.

“F-1s are no more wild than any other generation,” says Brigitte Cowell, rescue coordinator of the Savannah Cat Club. “Where they do differ — and why I don’t think they are an ideal pet — is the level of intensity and persistence in doing what they want to do. It’s not aggression, it’s energy.”

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