How We Started, a Conversation with Petplan
In a recent conversation with Petplan, Belle Ayr’s Kristina Macaulay discusses how and why she started the cattery and why ethics and genetics matter.
Meet the woman behind world-leading breeding cattery Belle Ayr Cats, on the west coast of Scotland. Kristina Macaulay’s cats are highly sought-after pedigree pets and are also involved in genetic research.
What are you proudest of as a breeder?
That we took quality seriously and invested in the screening of our cats’ health. We set up our research clinic and created an online management system where we can set up projects and pull out our cats’ data, then submit it to faculties for research. Having set up different models for standards of reporting research and trials, we have contributed to various international research projects and subsequent veterinarian publications. Working with Professor Marie Abitbol of the Université de Lyon, we have discovered that our Golden British cats not only carry the newly discovered ‘copper gene’ but have the rarer ‘sunshine’ version, which gives such a delightful glow to their coats. We contributed 56 DNA and hair samples from our cats, which included seven litters of kittens. We have also contributed to research and set up the Feline Coronavirus Clinic.
Read the rest of the article at Petplan’s website.