Professor eyes breeding four-eared cat

Professor eyes breeding four-eared cat

rt.com

A biology professor who happens to own a cat with three extra ear lobes wants to mate her with the only known tom-cat in Russia with a similar trait. Their offspring may start a unique breed of four-eared cats.
The cat named Luntya, living at Vladimir Obryvkov’s apartment in Voronezh in south-western Russia, was born with a few deformities. She has very large paws, dewlaps on her cheekbones and most noticeably three small earlobes, which have grown in front of the regular set and face backwards.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is just, some, well interesting news. I haven't ever seen a four eyed cat before, the photo is in the news link. I wonder if their are any cat lovers here who would consider adopting such a pet. It will be interesting to see if this is a dominant trait. It is cetranly an interesting mutation...

rt.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Why most we always mess around with certain things just because we can or think we should?
Surely this is going to carry on the defects and cause some problems somewhere down the line.

I find this to be pretty awesome actually. Way better than the trend of making domestic animals smaller and smaller through selective breeding of sickly runts.

I also love RT's site motto: Question More.

It sound like ATS's second choice after Deny Ignorance

Dear god, it seems South Park was in on it all along...

the 4 assed monkey !



Now this is the little cutie that is the subject of this thread... uhh... all the better to hear you with deary!



and this is the intended .... uhh... ear donor... They're on the other side? It might make a 6 eared kitty if they go ahead with this! oO



But remember, South Park were there first.... trying to mate a pig with an elephant!

the hills of eyes meets the cat world.. epic

The cat doesn't have "4 ears". Just 4 ear flaps. Just a genetic defect mutation.

reply to post by SpeachM1litant


As a cat lover I have mixed feelings about this. I am concerned about the "Other deformities". On the other hand this can't be too much different than Hemingway's cats with extra toes.

In addition it isn't as if this is from genetic manipulation this is a natural mutation and may down the road lead to enhanced survival. Thats how evolution works folks...

Originally posted by Jinglelord
reply to post by SpeachM1litant

 

As a cat lover I have mixed feelings about this. I am concerned about the "Other deformities". On the other hand this can't be too much different than Hemingway's cats with extra toes.

In addition it isn't as if this is from genetic manipulation this is a natural mutation and may down the road lead to enhanced survival. Thats how evolution works folks...

Thats what bothers me. In nature this cat would be immediately be bread with other cats who don't have this gene, and it would quickly be gone and bread away. But humans are going to breed the same lineage of cats with eack other to keep producing 4 lobed cats. just like they keep inbreeding cats to produce the cats with those stumpy half legs.

Leave it up to humans to mess up nature.

a cat with three extra ear lobes

Now I didn't do much science in high school, but I'm pretty sure cats are meant to have 2 ear lobes. Wouldn't that mean these cats have five ear lobes?

Originally posted by larrydavid

Thats what bothers me. In nature this cat would be immediately be bread with other cats who don't have this gene, and it would quickly be gone and bread away. But humans are going to breed the same lineage of cats with eack other to keep producing 4 lobed cats. just like they keep inbreeding cats to produce the cats with those stumpy half legs.

Leave it up to humans to mess up nature.

Actually the gene wouldnt be breed out (its extremely hard to breed out a benign recessive gene from a decent sized population through normal natural breeding), if its a recessive a large number of a litter would carry the recessive but not display any outward appearance of it, in fact any litter of the 4 lobed female would carry the gene, and if they breed with their siblings or cousins at any point they would easily produce a pure 4 lobed kitten... the only reason the guy would want to breed with the 3 lobed male is that it would mean the entire litter would more than likely display the extra lobes, also the male is in no way related to the female but still has a similar mutation so the kittens of the pairing would have a very healthy set of genes thanks to no inbreeding. You could then breed the male and female again with normal cats then breed those pairings offspring with the original litter and still have a good strong mix of genes... its more a way of speeding up the process of getting a healthy diverse in genes,decent sized population to work with.

If I understand it, with cat breeding they often out breed to a normal cat every few generations then breed the new litter with the old to stop issues with inbreeding, its something registered cat breeders (good ones) do that dog breeders seem not to bother with, sure you have to wait longer for pure examples in litters but it stops the rampant inbreeding that is so prevalent in the dog breeding world... cant stand dog breeders (not all of them).

I personally have no problem with this really, I am very vocal about the stupidity of the munchkin breed of cats since their mutation is an impediment to their ability to live a feline life... this mutation of 4 lobes is not a problem for the cat, much like a Manx missing tail or a Sphinx missing fur, or polydactylism.

From an aesthetic point of view it is very interesting, my own 3 male ex-feral kittens/cats have oddly formed secondary ears (those little funnel parts at the outer edge of a cats ear) they are all curled inwards and flattened to the point where they are more or less useless but it causes them no problems with their hearing.

Now if the 4 lobe gene/s is also linked with a congenital defect that is detrimental to the animals health like a short snout that caused breathing problems or weak heart, bone growths, increased chances of cancer, then yes id have a real problem with them breeding this breed into a viable population.

Cat breeders (apart from the munchkin proponents) are very mindful of what they are making in term of a breed, so id trust them to do the right thing.

(As for my dog breeding comments, I mainly mean the ones in the UK, ive seen a few docos over the years exposing the sever problems they have with breeding practices and inbreeding issues, the dog societies over their are insane. The British cat societies however are much much different in nature and practice... im not sure what the American cat societies are like but id assume they have similar morals and practices, hopefully... cat breeders from what I can see are more level headed).

I know of cats who have two sets of feet on each leg.
They also breed true, and the offspring of mixed mates all have the extra feet.
The front paws are awesome, and work like a huge baseball glove.
The back extra paws are more vestigal, and do not have function.
But the fron paws are sort of opposed and work just fine.
These cats have been around this particulat town for decades by now, and they havent bred out yet.

Originally posted by Nick_X
I find this to be pretty awesome actually. Way better than the trend of making domestic animals smaller and smaller through selective breeding of sickly runts.

Well I hope I live long enough to see cat sized domesticated giraffes and elephants.

Interesting article, and an interesting situation from a ethical point of veiw, and also from a scientific angle. I would be very interested to know, if the female cat with the extra ears actualy has the inner ear for each extra as well. If the ears are fully connected to the brain of the cat, then how is its balance affected by the presence of these extra ears? Is it improved or negatively influenced by the extra data provided by the superfluous ears? Is the hearing of the cat better or worse? Does the positioning of the extra ears interfere with the reception of sound by the ears that are normaly present?
If the ears function, and are not a hinderance to the cat, then why not breed more? What are the potential impacts on ecology of the presence of a cat with hyper hearing? Could a potential escape of such an animal into the wild be devastating to the rodent population of the locality?
If the ears do not function, and hinder the cats normal range of hearing, then what possible reason could the good professor have for wanting to inflict such a bane on more generations of cats?
This situation is thorny and full of interesting conundrums.

Originally posted by SpeachM1litant


This is just, some, well interesting news. I haven't ever seen a four eyed cat before, the photo is in the news link. I wonder if their are any cat lovers here who would consider adopting such a pet. It will be interesting to see if this is a dominant trait. It is cetranly an interesting mutation...

rt.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Its not a four eyed cat.... It's a four eared cat!

Originally posted by TheStev

a cat with three extra ear lobes

Now I didn't do much science in high school, but I'm pretty sure cats are meant to have 2 ear lobes. Wouldn't that mean these cats have five ear lobes?

Meant to have? Who or what meant it?

*shrugs* God? Nature? Evolution?

Depends what you believe I guess.

I'm not saying these cats are 'an affront to nature' or anything like that. I'm saying that most cats are born with 2 ear lobes (as far as I'm aware) these cats, according to the article, have 'three extra' lobes. Therefore, by logic, they should have 5 and not 4 lobes. Capiche?

Originally posted by TrueBrit
and an interesting situation from a ethical point of veiw

Why? Since when have we cared about what dogs/cats suffer when doing selective breeding?
I mean we breed dogs without tails. Isnt that far worse, removing a vital part of an animals physiology?

reply to post by merka


We USED to have the Inquisition. The Romans USED to crucify thier enemies, and criminals. They would slam pins through thier wrists and feet, into a cross of wood, and erect the sorry results for all to see, before breaking the legs of the crucified party, so that even if they got off the cross, they would be incapable of escape. It could take days to kill a man this way, each breath an agony, each beat of thier hearts harder, more painful.
We USED to have wars that meant the end of nations, the death of entire races of man.
We USED to fight cocks and dogs legaly, and hunt foxes with dogs. We do not continue to do those things now, because we have realised how cruel they are.
Sure, there is still cruelty in the world, and much of it directed at animals , but even the Kennel Club of Great Britain, have revised thier breeding policies to prevent congenital bodily diseases which are rife amongst pedigree breeds, and thats a big deal because the Kennel Club is full of eugenicists (thats folks who believe that selective breeding is the way forward, the advocates of this attitude believe that this policy would work well for humans as well as dogs). They have been breeding dogs with painful hereditary diseases bought on by inbreeding and the reinforcement of breed specific diseases, for YEARS, but even these staunch torturerers, these people who create generations of broken animals have FINALY given the situation another look.
It IS an issue of ethics. Just because things that are wrong continue to happen, does not mean that turning a blind eye, or deliberately establishing that unfortunate fact as an excuse absolves one of any wrong doing.