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Here Kitty redux - the $22K cat is not that special

Earlier, I had writing about the new breed of cat being developed by a company called Lifestyle Pets: Here kitty - a $22,000 pet. Reader Mike Toreno commented that this cat looked a lot like a Savannah cat, a registered breed. Same overall size, disposition and coloring. I googled a bit and found this web page: Ashera vs. Savannah Cat

Lifestyle Pets Introduces the $22,000 Ashera(TM), the World's Largest, Rarest and Most Exotic Domestic Cat
In my opinion, reading this press release simply shouted "There's one born every minute" and "A fool and his money are readily parted". A special kitty descended from the African Serval and Asian Leopard cat and the domestic cat and they want to charge folk $22,000? This cat already exists, it is called the Savannah cat and was first accepted for registration by The International Cat Association (TICA), the world's largest genetic registry of pedigreed cats, way back in the year 2000. So to me, Lifestyle Pets seem a little behind the eight-ball.

From the looks of the pictures attached to this press release, the Ashera they are peddling for $22,000 appears to be an F2 generation Savannah cat (two generations removed from the Serval) which would normally cost $3,500 to ~$5,000 from a reputable cat breeder, depending on quality.

Since the original launching of the Ashera cat, the story has changed a little. This current idea is that this cat melds domestic cat with both African Serval and Asian Leopard Cat lineage. ANY cat with African Serval heritage and domestic cat heritage is a Savannah cat. Period. Asian Leopard Cat heritage is a fancy way of saying that they used Bengal cats (the domestic hybrid descended from Asian Leopard Cats, registered for over 20 years with TICA) to cross to the African Serval, something that has already occurred in the Savannah breed, and the vast majority of Savannahs registered have some Asian Leopard Cat in their heritage.

By keeping all information about the Ashera cat confidential, this means that the purchaser of an Ashera cat is buying a cat lacking a pedigree, which is the thing that normally means a cat is worth more money than a shelter kitty. The pictures supplied of the Ashera cat appear to show an inferior-quality Savannah, and the lack of a pedigree or registration papers backs up that impression.

So as far as I can see, buying an Ashera cat is buying an unregistered inferior Savannah cat and paying five times as much for the privilege?

Kinda sums things up nicely doesn't it... The home page for the breed is here: Savannah Cat Gorgeous creatures -- if we weren't already really busy with our critters, I'd seriously look into getting one or two. Beautiful. Posted by DaveH at June 11, 2007 9:53 PM | TrackBack