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i love my laogong v^__^v
BOOM! my heart become complete because of your cuteness and kindness too!!!

such a cute baby!!!

personally i think, we should breed this cat or any type or wild cats for leisure we might not be good enough to take care of them

but, if for passion of the breed and want the species to survive, then go for it! there's a lot of wild species that is almost extinct survive (although in small number) due to human interference.

i remember watching steve irwins and the tasmanian devil gang inside their simulated enclosure. tazzies are almost gone!

Afi, you seems to have passion for wild cats, I am ok with it but please don’t encourage people to buy and breed them.

Have you even think of the consequence if everyone who can afford a wild cat can buy and owe one and do whatever they like with it, irrespective of whether they have any knowledge of the specie or not? How often have we heard of large wild cats being ill-treated by their owners? Do you know wild animals and birds can die suddenly due to overwhelming stress? Even if the birds were raised from chick, they will pluck almost all their feathers due to stress and zoo animals will pace around and around in a circle due to boredom and stress. What happened if the wildcat like Savannah cat got escaped or being released because the owner cannot keep it any more, it might injure or even kill our pets and could attack human too. Worst is, introducing foreign wildcat could spread foreign disease and cause disease outbreak in our cats. Perhaps you read about the extensive damage that innocent alligator turtle, giant tortoise, feral cats, wild rabbits, wild pigs and foxes caused to a foreign land. They were once pets or introducing game animals too.

Are we really preserving the leopard cats by crossing it with domestic cat? Bengal cat isn’t Leopard cat. Have you encountered very wild Bengal cat of at least 5 generations? I have. The aggressive gene tenses to pass on from one generation to the next. If Bengal breeder didn’t carefully select on temperament even after many generations, you will still have very wild Bengal cat. It is still debatable if we really domesticate our cats.

Sand cat is desert cat and we have hot and humid weather. Could anyone here provide the desert environment, large open space and the preys it use to catch and eat?

I think we have enough cat breeds already and we shouldn’t interfere or tempted with the nature. Conservation of wild cats is best leave to the experts who spend years to study and understand them and most importantly they preserved the habitat that they live in. We can do our part by preserve our environment too because everything is connected in this world, affect one thing will automatically affect others.

Wah... actually I'm in a neutral side... I have heard so many stories from both side... both got their pros and cons... our local exotic animal debate is not as great as the westerner. One side want to develope and game and one side want to preserve... I think most of us didn't know that in some countries they allow certain people to go to the jungle and hunt the wild cats.. and other exotic animal not for fur or meat but for fun.... we do have it here but the animal listed is not as broad as overseas. The battle has going on for ages and non of any side win... here our goverment decide on everything but there its being decide from voting... It seems that there is no full stop for hunting... so some looking an altenative ways to preserve which is one of it is by breeding them....

You are right on those who neglect their animal which they suppose to take care of. I'm not saying that I will buy them and breed... so far I dont event have one event a ferret. Research and more research need to be done before I event have one and mostly its for pet not to breed. I dont think many Malaysian are ready to make a commitment to have this kind of cat. But hey they are many other exotic animal available in local Pet Store and we cant stop people to buy one... People are still people and even how we try to educate them.... they are still like that.

I'm only introducing them to the breed that they never heard before... I dont think any of the forumer will buy one.... who want to buy 20K cat ???......

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Mainecoon And American Curls Sanctuary www.pusakarimbakl.com
www.geocities.myheritage_cattery.com

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"A man of kindness to his beast is kind... A brutal action shows a brutal mind... Remember, He gave thee speech and formed him mute... He can’t complain, but God’s all-seeing eye... Behold the cruelty and hears his cry... He was designed thy servant not thy drudge... Remember thy Creator is thy judge..."

my only opinion on this matter

i will not oppose a scientist or a vet or other people given the task of preserving a dying breed....

Afi, I know you are just introducing different type of wild cats. I was very impressed by the beauty of the Savannah Cat.

I learned a lot from the vets of Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia during my 2 weeks of working experience there. I would say none of us are up to the standard of raising and breeding wild cats so are most of the mini zoo. I haven’t been to other bigger zoo in West Malaysia so I don’t know how good they are. Wild cats fall in inexperience owners will only diminish their numbers so think twice before you buy one, instead of helping them you are actually destroying them.

I think a lot of wild cats were smuggled in and sell in the black market. During the process of smuggling is another problem for the animals. Like the slogan, the buying stop, the killing end. It can also apply here, the buying stop, the smuggling end.

Speaking from my own experiences, when I was very young, my relative caught a King Fisher and gave it to me but it died shortly in my hand. I was sort of blaming myself of killing that poor creature. It is not until I studied Veterinary Science that I know most wild animals and birds could die suddenly due to overwhelming stress. I still love birds but I won’t keep any unless they can fly freely, I joining bird watching instead. I also love to visit bird parks and zoo. Singapore Jurong Bird Park and Taronga zoo are my favors. You see we don’t have to owe them to enjoy them. Nowadays, the technology is so advance you have many other ways of enjoying the wild cats.

I love target games like archery. In our uni. days, we had a lesson on gun and we had a few shots using gun and rifle, it was fun. I was looking forward to hunt with a farmer during my practical in cattle farm. The farmer is an experience and legal hunter, he know where to shot in order to kill the animals instantly. That day when he finally had a target, which was a gray kangaroo, he aim and shoot with his rifle. Unfortunately, that time he didn’t make the killer shot, I saw the Kangaroo hoping away with an arm flicking around, he try to go for second shot but it has disappeared in view. I was so sad to witness all this as the poor Kangaroo would probably died slowly and painfully. From that day onwards, I swear to myself I won’t have anything to do with gun ever. I saw a colicky horse struggle vigorously before it died too it was terrible. I couldn’t imagine how a shot animal may experience before it finally died.

Yup...the sand cat is extremely gorgeous but is best left where it earns its namesake...in the sand.
Regardless of how expensive or how much of a great deal one gets from buying an exotic animal, one can never fully claim that it is in the animal's best interest that it is kept in captivity.
For researchers with preservation in the core of all their activities, it is highly discouraging for them to have to educate a general public that feels hat it is alright to smuggle in wild exotic animals to b sold as pets. We all owe Mother Nature and its other residents the social obligation to respect the balance of the world. Unless something is going extinct due to our own human selfishness, it is always better to enjoy our friends from a distance.
The pet stores that sell exotic animals might expose the public to the certain breeds of wildlife but unfortunately, they will be one of the factors that will cause the demise of the animal they hold in such high regard initially.

20K Kitten? heheheh...
I think we shud breed them in a sense that we breed them in a lab kinda thingy. More like conservation purpose. Macam penyu yg dah nak pupus tu... a breeding facility to increase the population. Not like breed them to be domesticated. Or has it been done? I mean the conservation thingy.

Sayang kalau anak cucu kita tak kenal sand cat or any extinct animal for that matter. I nearly tak kenal this type of cat kalau Afi tak post kat sini. It's quite sad kan?

But how come there's a price tag on the sand cat? Are u saying that it is available for sale?

It only sold to selected organization only or selected people only but since it was under CITES II .... anybody can have it if they want to .... which I think not many since this type of cat are wild and fierce and hard to handle. Normally people wont buy if there is no commersial value like serval and so on. The most important that we do not have conservation centre like US did for wild cats. If a owner cannot handle the cat.. it can be place at the centre but here you will stuck with it and I think many will just release in the wild without thinking the effects on the ecology.

There is huge responsability here. Exotic cat as pets in the US had normally tag with microchip... they can trace the owner if the animal is found wild loose.They will be charge.

Kat sini lain... mana ader animal police... jabatan perhilatan pun selalu buat tak tau ajer... microchipping is not compulsary....biler ader hal...biler dah heboh kat paper baru nak buat tindakan... thats what we call Malaysian.

Dont be suprise if I tell you that even Zoo is selling their wild animal to private breeder.... otherwise how they going to make money ??? Zoo are the biggest breeder of all.... This what we call exotic trade.

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Mainecoon And American Curls Sanctuary www.pusakarimbakl.com
www.geocities.myheritage_cattery.com