Swiss animal welfare warns against buying Bengal cats

The trade in hybrid cats – crosses between domestic and wild cats – is said to flourish in Switzerland. As the Swiss animal protection agency STS reports, this is mainly due to the exotic appearance of the four-legged friends. But their attitude often overwhelms cat owners very quickly.

In the wild there are often massive conflicts with other cats, in the apartment they cannot be kept in an animal-friendly manner due to their great urge to be active and exercise. The STS therefore advises against keeping hybrid cats and calls for stricter requirements for breeding and keeping.

The most common hybrid breed in Switzerland is the Bengal cat, which is the result of crossing the domestic cat with an Asian wild cat species. According to STS, their stock in Switzerland has doubled in the last four years alone. There are currently around 12,500 registered Bengal cats living in Switzerland. The high demand is also reflected in the import figures, which have more than quadrupled in this period. In 2022, almost 400 animals were imported. The Bengal cat is now one of the most commonly kept breeds in Switzerland.

“For animal welfare reasons, hybrid cats are often bought carelessly because of their exotic appearance. The keepers do not find out about their specific needs in advance and massively underestimate how time-consuming and demanding keeping them is. Enabling hybrid cats to live an animal-friendly life in the home is practically impossible,” the Swiss animal welfare organization said.

If you give them free rein, there are often massive conflicts with conspecifics; their distinctive hunting skills could pose a threat to the local fauna. In order to implement the demands for stricter requirements for keeping hybrid cats, the Swiss animal protection STS wants to achieve corresponding adjustments at the legislative level.

The problem of the hybrid cat boom was also confirmed by a survey of the sections of the Swiss Animal Welfare STS. Above all, animal shelters in urban or border areas would notice an increase in the number of hybrid cats given up, in the vast majority of cases these were Bengal cats.

The most frequently mentioned reasons for giving them away are: uncleanliness, intolerance, dominance and aggressiveness towards other dogs, overstraining the keepers and generally too wild behavior. The majority of the sections stated that the reasons for giving up were significantly different from those of other cats. The care of hybrid cats is associated with the animal shelters with a much higher expenditure of time than with other cats. They would need a lot more employment, exercise and attention.