Please don't buy into the disturbing new bullycat trend, says animal welfare charity, Naturewatch Foundation, as it is a cruel trend endangering cat welfare.
Bullycats, which are unnatural hairless sphynx-like cats with shortened and bowed legs and heavily wrinkled skin, have gained a disturbing following on social media platforms in recent months, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
They are called bullycats because of their resemblance to similarly unnatural and extreme-looking dog breeds, such as exotic and pocket bully dogs and experts are warning they are likely to suffer serious health and welfare issues because of our human fascination with their exaggerated and unnatural appearance.
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This extreme bullycat body shape appears to have originated in the United States, but Naturewatch Foundation, which investigates the illegal trade in companion animals, is appalled to see that Bullycats are now being bred in the UK, too.
“Bullycats are likely to suffer similarly shortened lives to those reported from a recent RVC VetCompass paper in Sphynx cats that lived just 6.7 years compared to an average of 11.7 years in cats overall", says Dr Dan O’Neill, Associate Professor of Companion Animal Epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College."
"Deliberately selecting for disease mutations, such as hairlessness that leads to sunburn, dwarfism that leads to mobility issues and joint pain, and folded skin that leads to lifetimes of skin infections means that many Bullycats will endure lives blighted by suffering."
“The advice to anyone thinking of acquiring a cat or a dog is to always put the welfare of the animal first and to stop and think before acquiring an animal with an extreme and unnatural body shape that does not exist commonly in nature.”
A spokesperson for Naturewatch Foundation said: “It’s shocking to see that these poor cats are starting to appear in the UK. We’ve seen increasingly extreme breeding practices in the dog world in recent years, and it appears unscrupulous people are now turning their attention to exploiting cats in the same way, all in the pursuit of greed and social media likes. Bullycats are animal welfare disaster unfolding before our eyes and this kind of breeding is just cruel.”
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Main image: Getty images