DEAR READERS
Where are your letters to Viewpoint? This is your space to voice your opinions, raise issues, share your views and ask questions.

In the last issue of OUR CATS, you were invited to respond on two issues:
The proposed ban on home boarding... your views?

‘In case of fire’... your views?

There is a pile of books sitting in the office, ready to be won for our ‘STAR LETTER’ spot!
The Animal health & Welfare Bill is another ‘hot topic’. The proposed changes might well affect cat breeders in the future. Have you read this document?

Please write by ‘snail mail’ or email, and become an active part of OUR CATS!

Best Wishes
Chris Stalker, Editor
Chris@ourcats.co.uk
Address to write to: 5 James Leigh Street, Manchester M1 5NF.

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In case of fire
WE read with interest your article, ‘In case of fire’ (12 August edition) regarding action to be taken if the fire alarm sounds at a cat show.

Your readers may like to know that the Feline Advisory Bureau is in the process of producing luggage labels which would exactly suit the purpose outlined in the last paragraph - the label can be tied to the cat basket and the cat’s name and pen number written on it. These will soon be available to purchase from the FAB website - www.fabcats.org or the FAB Office at Taeselbury, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6LD. Tel. 0870 742 2278.

Claire Bessant, FAB Chief Executive

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Home boarding

WE read with interest your articles and correspondence on home boarding for pets (OUR CATS, 12 August 2005). While it is perhaps acceptable to look at the pros and cons for home boarding for dogs, the Feline Advisory Bureau feels that home boarding for cats is not acceptable.

Earlier this year, we commented on exactly this subject to DEFRA regarding a ‘standard’ for home boarding and these comments are produced below:

It would be very difficult to put together something which would be acceptable as a standard for home boarding.

Essentially:

• Cats would have to be kept in one room (not carpeted) which could be completely disinfected after their stay and any bedding, soft furnishings, etc., washed or disposed of in order to prevent spread of disease.

• Cats from different homes should never mix or share a space which has not been disinfected first. They should never mix with resident cats.

• There is also much more chance of escape through doors and windows, especially if there are several people living in the home who might not be vigilant about keeping these shut.

• Nervous animals will simply hide under the furniture and not come out during the stay.

• For catteries we insist on runs which give the cat somewhere to get away from the bed area and where they can watch what is going on in the cattery or outside so that they do not become bored. In a home boarding situation, this would not be available.

Being shut in a room is a retrograde step, and if it is acceptable for home boarding, why should catteries spend lots of money making runs etc. If they overbook, could they fill up their houses? This is not acceptable. We have worked very hard to raise standards of care in catteries and are just reaching the stage where this quality is being accepted as the norm.

We work on principles of care, and if we compromise these for home boarding, we do not have a leg to stand on in defending them for catteries proper. If we accept less for home boarding we will be getting cats kept in garages or in cages in spare rooms again - something we are just getting rid of and which would take us back to the dark ages of cat boarding.

Claire Bessant, FAB Chief Executive

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Putting the FIV risk in perspective
I WAS dismayed to read the piece headed “FIV positive risk” in the 12 August issue of OUR CATS, as I would have hoped to see this journal dispelling the myths surrounding this illness, rather than perpetuating them.

Any time you bring a new cat into your household you risk introducing infection of some kind - even if the cat is coming from a reputable breeder - but obviously more so if you are bringing in a stray or rescue cat. It is clearly sensible to isolate a stray from your own cats until you can confirm that you are not introducing calici, herpesvirus, FeLV, FIV, fleas, worms, etc.

But I want to emphasise that the risk to companion cats from an FIV positive cat is very low indeed.

Transmission is thought to be through a deep bite, via infected saliva. So the chief risk is to cats the infected cat meets when defending its territory, not to those with whom it shares a home. Although you say that FeLV is spread in the same way, my understanding is that this disease is spread much more readily by exchange of saliva through grooming and sharing food bowls. Hence the reference to FIV as “the fighting disease” and FeLV as “the friendly disease”.

To put the risk in perspective for the cat lover who is the subject of the piece, if she just brought the stray cat in and made no attempt at initial isolation or gradual introduction, then there may have been fighting and her own cats may have been put at risk. If normal, sensible precautions were taken, the risk was very small.

The piece ends - “Sadly the cat involved had to be euthanased”. Unless there were other health problems this was completely unnecessary. FIV positive cats can live out a normal lifespan. What the cat needed was to be homed as a single indoor cat, or with other FIV positive cats. I realise such homes are not easy to find, but this is not helped by the widespread ignorance about FIV.
Those of us who show in the South West of England are familiar with Barbara Hunt’s Catwork stand at many of our local shows. Catwork is a sanctuary for FIV and FeLV positive cats - for the facts about FIV, please see Barbara’s excellent website at www.fivcats.com

Susan Startin
Editor’s Note: The cat in question was put to sleep on human grounds, as it was very ill. The point of the original article was to highlight the ignorance of the disease. Su makes some very valid points in her letter to Viewpoint.

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