Joan Judd and the founding of the Feline Advisory Bureau
MJoan Judd, founder of the Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB) celebrated her 90th birthday on 1 August.
OUR CATS looks back on her remarkable life.
Joan was born in New Zealand in 1915 and then lived for a while in Canada, before returning to the UK with her parents in 1919 and settling in Gloucestershire.
As a small girl, Joan loved animals, always having a tabby kitten as a pet and her ambition was to be a vet. The financial slump of the 1920s and 1930s put paid to this plan, but as Joan now says, fate has a curious way of shaping the future. Although unable to realise her ambition she has probably achieved more in helping the feline species through her involvement with FAB.
Joan’s earliest memories were of the cats kept to control the rats in the stables of the horses bred by her parents and grandparents. Unlike many of their contemporaries, these cats were well cared for and had good lives. But she also remembers, with horror, the brutality with which unwanted kittens and cats were treated by many people.
In 1946, after some years serving in the WAAF, Joan married a professional soldier. They spent a few years abroad, but then returned to Gloucestershire where Joan, now a widow, still lives. Joan’s husband was keen to have a Siamese cat. Though less enthusiastic, Joan was soon won over by the two kittens he brought home one day. She set out to learn as much as she could about the breed and became a member of the Cat Fancy where she was eventually established as a reputable breeder of Siamese and Havana cats.
Through her involvement with breeding, Joan became aware of the need for deeper knowledge and understanding of the care and treatment of feline diseases. During the late 40s and early 50s, many letters appeared in the Cat Fancy’s official journal, Fur and Feather, deploring the fact that nothing was being done to help cats in veterinary medicine. Cats were treated as if they were small dogs with similar problems. No-one seemed prepared to improve feline health and wellbeing or to bring about change.
Joan was increasingly frustrated by this apathy, so, together with Tony Bubb, then Chairman of the South Western Cat Club, she decided to form a more progressive cat club, which became the West of England and South Wales Cat Association. Joan and Tony arranged for speakers to attend their meetings, who talked about a wide range of feline health and welfare issues. They also organised the first cat show to be held in Bristol for over 30 years. It was an outstanding success. The club was deemed too ‘avant-garde’ for the Cat Fancy and sniping and bickering resulted in a lot of ill-feeling, which eventually led Joan to resign. She began to plan the foundation of a more scientific organisation, free of interference from any cat organisation.
In 1958, Joan founded the Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB) together with the Central Fund for Feline Research (CFFR). The original aim of the CFFR was to support feline studies at different universities, with its funds being kept entirely separate from FAB. Joan became very unpopular with some in the Cat Fancy who resented the new ideas, particularly when the President of the newly formed British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) also began to support her ideas for a more scientific organisation. Joan was determined that all information and advice would have a sound scientific base and, acting on the advice of the BSAVA, a council was established and a scientific advisory panel set up. Major Hume of the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare was also very supportive of FAB’s work and subsequently gave a lot of advice, adding to the growing pool of scientific information.
The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy boycotted the new organisation and this was a particularly stressful time for Joan and her colleagues - lesser mortals might have given up. Branded as vivisectionists because of their close ties with the veterinary profession, they received sackloads of hate mail, much of it anonymous. But there was support from some far-sighted breeders and judges who encouraged Joan to continue.
In 1960, the Special Publications list began with a booklet on feline infectious enteritis and was soon followed by other papers. The Boarding Cattery Construction and Management was published as the first authoritative information on the welfare requirements of cats in boarding establishments. Prior to the passing of the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963, boarding catteries consisted mainly of stacked tea chests, orange boxes and rusty wire netting. FAB’s contribution to raising standards in boarding catteries is now legendary.
The first conference - designed to meet the interests of both cat and owners and breeders - was held in London in April 1964 and was a sell out. Joan sent complimentary tickets to the Chairman and Secretary of GCCF, inviting them to meet the President and Vice President of the BSAVA. Following this meeting, the ban on FAB taking stands at cat shows was lifted, enabling it, at last, to promote its aims within the Cat Fancy.
Joan remained as secretary of FAB until 1972 when a painful injury sustained in a car accident forced her to resign. That same year, the name of the CFFR was changed to the Central Fund for Feline Studies and the two funds were merged.
The FAB scholarship established the first exclusively feline consultancy and its objectives were to produce more cat- orientated vets, to provide a pool of clinical data to investigate feline diseases, to disseminate information and to initiate new studies.
In 1983, lack of funds was seriously endangering the future of the scholarship. The GCCF, recognising the invaluable work of FAB for the health and welfare of cats, provided a covenant to support the CFFS which ensured the future of the scholarships. Research was no longer regarded as synonymous with vivisection and the breach was finally healed.
Between 1988 and 1990, with FAB on a firm financial footing, additional interesting projects could be developed. In 1996 a sister organisation - the European Society of Feline Medicine - was founded, aimed specifically at veterinary surgeons across Europe.
Today’s FAB members include breeders, veterinary surgeons and nurses, those involved in rescue, boarding cattery owners, pet owners and those who simply love cats. FAB’s knowledge, based on the sound scientific base which Joan sought to establish, is now shared with hundreds of thousands of people across the world. The FAB website which includes over 300 pages of news and information, is accessed daily by people from as far afield as Australia and Brazil. Little could Joan have imagined, nearly 50 years ago, that her charity would become the focus for cat lovers across the globe.
Cats and cat lovers owe a great debt of gratitude to Joan Judd - thanks to her vision and hard work the lives of cats have been transformed. Once considered of little importance, they are now the most popular pet in the country and the majority of them are cared for by loving owners and treated by increasingly well-informed vets.
Joan still has close ties with FAB, receiving all the literature they produce and regularly speaking to Chief Executive, Claire Bessant.
