Editing Purebred (section)

===Cats===
[[File:Chocolate Persian.jpg|thumb|Purebred chocolate [[Persian cat|Persian]] show cat with "Grand Champion" title.]]
{{See also|List of cat breeds}}

A cat whose [[Genealogy|ancestry]] is formally registered is called a [[Purebred cat|pedigreed or purebred cat]]. Technically, a ''purebred'' cat is one whose ancestry contains only individuals of the same breed. A ''pedigreed'' cat is one whose ancestry is recorded with a [[cat registry]], but may have ancestors of different breeds. [[Landrace|''Landraces'']] are not cat breeds, but a selective group of representative cats can be used as [[foundation stock]] to create a new cat breed (examples of breeds created in this way are the [[Maine Coon]], [[European Shorthair]] and [[Siberian cat|Siberian]]).

Because of common crossbreeding in populated areas, most cats are simply identified as belonging to the unregistered non-pedigree cats of mixed or unknown ancestry, referred to as [[Domestic long-haired cat|domestic long-haired]] and [[domestic short-haired cat]], depending on their fur length.<ref name="DK">{{Cite book |last1=Baggaley |first1=Ann |title=The Cat Encyclopedia |last2=Goddard |first2=Jolyon |last3=John |first3=Katie |date=2014 |publisher=[[Dorling Kindersley]] |isbn=9781409347903 |location=London |oclc=879716720 }}{{pn|date=August 2024}}</ref> Other commonly used terms are random-bred cat, domestic cat, house(hold) cat or moggie/moggy (UK English).<ref>{{Cite web |title=All About Mixed Breed Cats: What Mix Is Yours? {{!}} ASPCA Pet Health Insurance |url=https://www.aspcapetinsurance.com/resources/mixed-breed-cat/ |access-date=16 September 2023 |website=ASPCAPetInsurance.com}}</ref> Out of the hundreds of millions of cats worldwide, almost none have any purebred ancestors, nor belong to a specific breed, because purebred cats are a human invention of the last 150 years and selectively bred from [[foundation stock]] by breeders in closed-off lineages.

According to the government of the United States, fewer than 2% of cats in that country are purebred and raised by breeders.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-09-18 |title=Animal Welfare; Retail Pet Stores and Licensing Exemptions |url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2013/09/18/2013-22616/animal-welfare-retail-pet-stores-and-licensing-exemptions#p-373 |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=Federal Register |language=en}}</ref> Not all breeders sell registered pedigree cats.<ref name="UKkitten" /> In France, this number is higher and approximately 4% of cats are pedigreed.{{efn|name=France|All purebred cats born in France after 1999 should be registered with [[Livre Officiel des Origines Félines|LOOF]]. LOOF registry data from 2003-2022 is publicly available and shows that 646774 cats were registered in that time period.<ref name="LOOF">{{Cite web |title=LOOF - Races/annee |url=https://loof.asso.fr/stats/recap.php?complet&ordre=ped2022#table |access-date=16 September 2023 |website=loof.asso.fr}}</ref> In 2022, France had a cat population of 14.9 million according to [[Statista]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cat population in France 2010-2022 |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/515981/cat-population-europe-france/ |access-date=16 September 2023 |website=Statista}}</ref> Discarding the import and export of French purebred cats and cats born before 2003 (due to lack of data), this means 646774 out of 14.9 million or 4.3% of the French cats is registered/pedigreed. As most cat registries don't have their data public, are an international registry, or not forced by national laws, this is one of the few sources that gives a valid indication on cat registry numbers. Most self-reported data on cat breeds is influenced by the fact that rescues/owners label for example all solid blue cats as Russian Blue cats.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 July 2023 |title=Cat Fanciers: What Breeds Are Making Waves in The Cat World? - Pet Age |url=https://www.petage.com/cat-fanciers-what-breeds-are-making-waves-in-the-cat-world/ |access-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610220357/https://www.petage.com/cat-fanciers-what-breeds-are-making-waves-in-the-cat-world/ |archive-date=2023-06-10 }}</ref>}} Worldwide the number of pedigreed cats is somewhat lower, and is estimated at approximately 1–2%.{{efn|name=world|Based on the less than 2% of cats in the USA, the approximately 4% of the registred pedigreed cats in France, and the popularity of pedigreed cats in France compared to all other countries worldwide. The cat fancy is well established in France since the end of the 19th-century. The popularity of pedigree cats in France is also seen in the amount of different breeds registered with LOOF,<ref name="LOOF" /> and the numbers of France born and living pedigree cats compared to other countries in the PawPeds-database.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Databases |url=https://www.pawpeds.com/cms/index.php/en/databases |access-date=16 October 2023 |website=Pawpeds.com |publisher=PawPeds}}</ref>}}

By definition all cats belonging to a specific breed are pedigreed cats with a known and formally [[Cat registry|registered]] [[Genealogy|ancestry]] with one of the [[Cat registry|cat registries]], also known as the cat’s “paperwork” or pedigree.<ref name="CFAkitten">{{Cite web |title=Finding the Purr-fect Pedigreed Kitten |url=https://cfa.org/finding-the-purr-fect-pedigreed-kitten/ |access-date=30 March 2023 |website=CFA.org |publisher=[[The Cat Fanciers' Association]]}}</ref><ref name="UKkitten">{{Cite web |title=What are Papers and Do I Need Them For My Pedigree Kitten? |url=https://www.registeredpets.co.uk/blog/what-are-papers-and-why-are-they-important-for-my-pedigree-kitten |access-date=30 March 2023 |website=Registered Pets}}</ref> The [[list of cat breeds]] is quite large: most [[Cat registry|cat registries]] actually recognize between 30 and 75<ref>{{Cite web |last=The International Cat Association |author-link=The International Cat Association |title=Browse All Breeds |url=https://www.tica.org/breeds/browse-all-breeds |access-date=31 March 2023 |website=TICA.org |date=31 July 2018}}</ref> breeds of cats, and several more are in development, with one or more new breeds being recognized each year on average, having distinct features ([[phenotype]]) and [[Pedigree chart|lineage]]. Nowadays, there exist over 100 [[List of cat breeds|cat breeds and varieties]] recognized by at least one of the official [[Cat registry|cat registries]].<ref name="DK" /> The purpose of the registry of cat breeds is to develop and maintain a healthy breed by controlling [[inbreeding]] and the spread of [[Genetic disorder|hereditary diseases]], and regulating the well-being of the cats.<ref>{{Cite web |title=WCF Breeding and Registration rules for all member clubs |url=http://wcf.info/WCF-EN/zuechterinfo/zuchtregeln.html |access-date=30 March 2023 |website=WCF.info |publisher=[[World Cat Federation]]}}</ref><ref name="WCF">{{Cite web |title=GCCF Registers affect showing and breeding |url=https://www.gccfcats.org/breeding-cats/new-to-breeding/registration-policies/ |work=GCCFCats.org |publisher=[[Governing Council of the Cat Fancy]]}}</ref><ref name=":20">{{Cite web |title=Disqualifiers and General Faults |url=https://www.worldcatcongress.org/wp/cat_disq_comp.php |access-date=30 March 2023 |website=WorldCatCongress.org |publisher=[[World Cat Congress]]}}</ref> [[Cat culture|Owners and breeders]] compete in [[Cat show|cat shows]] to see whose animal bears the closest resemblance (best ''conformance'') to an idealized definition, based on [[breed type]] and the [[breed standard]] for each breed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=World Cat Federation (WCF) |author-link=World Cat Federation |title=Definitions in the Standard |url=http://wcf.info/WCF-EN/standard/kriterien.html |access-date=31 March 2023 |website=WCF.info}}</ref>

Modern breeders created cat breeds, which are actually feline [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrids]] between a [[Wild cat|wild cat species]] and the domestic cat species (''[[Cat|Felis catus]]'' ). A famous example of such a hybrid cat breed is the [[Savannah cat|Savannah]] cat (''[[Cat|Felis catus]]'' × ''[[Leptailurus serval]]'' ), which is produced by crossing wild [[Serval|servals]] with domestic cats.<ref name="DK" />

Some [[Landrace|natural, ancient breeds]] of cat that have a distinct [[phenotype]] were formerly considered or speculated to be subspecies of wild cats or domestic cats (''Felis catus''), or hybrids between them. Later genetic research shows that only one wild cat species was domesticated; the north African and southwest Asian wild cat (''[[Felis silvestris lybica]]'').<ref name="ancientcat">{{cite journal |last1=Ottoni |first1=Claudio |last2=Van Neer |first2=Wim |last3=De Cupere |first3=Bea |last4=Daligault |first4=Julien |last5=Guimaraes |first5=Silvia |last6=Peters |first6=Joris |last7=Spassov |first7=Nikolai |last8=Prendergast |first8=Mary E. |last9=Boivin |first9=Nicole |last10=Morales-Muñiz |first10=Arturo |last11=Bălăşescu |first11=Adrian |last12=Becker |first12=Cornelia |last13=Benecke |first13=Norbert |last14=Boroneant |first14=Adina |last15=Buitenhuis |first15=Hijlke |last16=Chahoud |first16=Jwana |last17=Crowther |first17=Alison |last18=Llorente |first18=Laura |last19=Manaseryan |first19=Nina |last20=Monchot |first20=Hervé |last21=Onar |first21=Vedat |last22=Osypińska |first22=Marta |last23=Putelat |first23=Olivier |last24=Quintana Morales |first24=Eréndira M. |last25=Studer |first25=Jacqueline |last26=Wierer |first26=Ursula |last27=Decorte |first27=Ronny |last28=Grange |first28=Thierry |last29=Geigl |first29=Eva-Maria |title=The palaeogenetics of cat dispersal in the ancient world |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |date=19 June 2017 |volume=1 |issue=7 |page=0139 |doi=10.1038/s41559-017-0139 |bibcode=2017NatEE...1..139O |s2cid=44041769 }}</ref> All domestic (non-hybrid) cats and cat breeds fall under the domestic cat (''Felis catus''), and are no longer considered separate (sub)species.<ref>{{cite journal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=31 March 2003 |title=Opinion 2027 (Case 3010) |url=http://www.iczn.org/BZNMar2003opinions.htm#opinion2027 |journal=[[Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature]] |publisher=[[International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature]] |volume=60 |issue=Part 1 |at="Opinions" section |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219211207/http://www.iczn.org/BZNMar2003opinions.htm |archive-date=19 December 2008 |access-date=18 November 2011 |quote=The majority of wild progenitors and their domestic derivatives share the same name, but in the 17 cases considered...[including ''Felis silvestris''] the wild and domestic forms have been separately named and this has created confusion.}}</ref> The domestication of the ''Felis silvestris lybica'' started around 9.000 years ago in the [[Near East]] and [[Egypt]] region,<ref name="ancientcat" /> while the [[selective breeding]] of purebred/pedigreed cat breeds only started 150 years ago.