ABSTRACT
‘A Dying Breed: The Perceived Decline of the Cat Fancy’ explores what many members of the cat fancy perceive as an existential crisis facing the leisure activity and associated cat fancy cultures. The cat fancy is having to respond to diverse types of pressure, both internal and external. This chapter explores these forms of pressure (which include increasing concern for animal welfare and animal rights), along with the particular social, economic, and political conditions from which they derive. Critically, participants’ anxieties about the decline of the cat fancy do not only relate to the potential loss of a much-loved leisure experience; there is also grave worry about the extinction of the pedigree cat. This concern highlights the extent to which cat fanciers are invested in notions of ‘breed’ and ‘lineage’. The chapter argues that many breeders feel that the loss of breeds would be an unnecessary shame, but that they are having to ethically justify their own ideas and practices; and their assessments of the value of breeds seem increasingly insecure. The existential crisis facing the cat fancy also challenges the fundamental identities of cat fanciers as ‘cat people’.
