Category Archives: CFA

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CFA Aby BC Ballot – results

Ballot

 

Results

 

Yes No Abst Yes
%
No
%
Total
votes
result Voting
(from 74
members)
Q 1 23 16 0 59% 41% 39 failed 52.70%
Q 2 27 12 0 69% 31% 39 passed 52.70%
Q 3 24 14 1 62% 36% 39 passed 52.70%
Q 4 25 12 1 66% 32% 38 passed 51.35%
Q 5 23 14 2 59% 36% 39 failed 52.70%
Q 6 19 18 2 49% 46% 39 failed 52.70%
Q 7 17 19 3 44% 49% 39 informal 52.70%
Q 8 13 22 4 33% 56% 39 informal 52.70%

Members

74 individual members have subscribed to the BC for the 2015-16 show season.
Of those, 9 are double members (1 cattery 2 votes), and 11 members (15%) are from outside the USA/Canada.
This is a relatively small amount of breeders (considering the size of the breed community participating in CFA events all over the globe)  that have decided to join the BC, and where many actually are no longer breeding Abys since many years if not decades. 11 (15%) of the current members are judges (2 Emeritus).

I think it is legitimate to ask whether it is ok, if only 24-27 individuals can overthrow a breed standard even if only in certain points. The current rules require that 60% of voting members must support a proposal for the BOD to ratify. Note, it says voting members, not members. So, in theory, if only 6 out of 10 voting wanted a change, it could be considered by the BOD.

But, let’s look at the proposed changes in detail, one by one. First, item 2, change the wording of ticking description. Look at the comparison of various standards from different established associations. 8 out of 13 standards use similar wording as current CFA standard, 4 have no description at all, and one (GCCF) has a rather confusing description in general. So, what exactly should be “vague” about the current wording if the vast majority of all Aby standards use exactly the same way to describe it? But, let’s look at two ticking examples of a ruddy Abyssinian.

ticking1  ticking2

On both cats, the light banding is of the undercoat color, but one is truly “light” while the other is dark and muddy. So, which one should be given preference?

 

How the CFA 0360-0363 prefixes came into existence

 

 

How the CFA 0360-0363 prefixes came into existence and what they mean

Aby's EyeFirst, this was not the idea of any of the Aby breeders at that time, it
has been decided by the board after lengthy discussion of the dilute
colors of VARIOUS breeds, not just the Abys and took place at the
Board meeting Feb 18-20, 1984 in San Diego. Actually, the stone
got rolled by Diane Doernberg who wanted that Central Office (CO)
establishes a mean by which those sable Burmeses that carry dilute
can be distinguished from those that don’t. The motion was carried,
only Reach voting no. As a consequence of this decision and other
relevant previous dicussions, James Thompson proposed to do the same for
Abys. Text quoted from the minutes:
” Mr. Thompson then statet that, based on what had been discussed already,
he moved that the red and ruddy Aby which carry the blue factor also be
identified by registration number. This would apply from this date forward.
There would be no effort to go back and try to identify such cats already
registered. This would apply to red and ruddy cats out of red/blue,
ruddy/blue
and blue/blue breedings”. My remark: Since the fawn haven’t been accepted
at that point yet, that’s the reason they were not mentioned.

The motion was carried, Reach and Jones voting no.

Btw, here’s the list of the board members voting at that meeting:
Robert Bradshaw, Nancy Dodds, Diana Doernberg, Kim Everett,
Walter Friend (President), Richard Gebhard, Dayle Hall, Mark
Hannon, Fred Jacobberger, Becky Jones, William Lee, Nancy
Loomis, Wayne Park, William Reach, Don Swanson, James Thompson,
Donald Williams and Norman Witbeck.

As to my knowledge, only Becky and Kim have been actively
breeding Abys either still at that time (Becky) or previously (Kim).
So, this shows clearly that the idea was not based on any
sort of elitism on behalf of some Aby breeders but rather
on the current breeding/registering philosophy of CFA at that
time which may linger on of some sort to these days.

2009 the Aby BC members voted in favor of eliminating the 0360-0363
prefixes and only use 0380-0387 instead (46 out of 86 members were voting, 30 Yes 16 No. The decision has been confirmed by the board and became effective on January 1, 2010.

Here is what the prefixes in front of each registration number mean:

0380 – ruddy male
0381 – ruddy female

0382 – red male
0383 – red female

0384 – blue male
0385 – blue female

0386 – fawn male
0387 – fawn female

0358 – any recognized color SH Somali/Somali variant male
0359 – any recognized color SH Somali/Somali variant female
(for further description see also post “Partial Success” from October
2011)

The following prefixes are not used anymore but have been in
existence from 1984-2009 and were given to cats out of dilute LINES
but where the registered cat did not necessarily carry dilute itself. Key was that there was a dilute ancestor anywhere in the pedigree of cats that have
been registered in the period from 1984-2009. Therefore, you will still see these prefixes in pedigrees for all Abys registered between the aforementioned period.

0360 – ruddy male
0361 – ruddy female

0362 – red male
0363 – red female