Look alikes
The Bombay is a very rare breed even in USA the country of origin. There are only about 20 breeders still active in USA. In France the Bombay has gained ground these last few years and there are a few breeders scattered around the rest of the world.
Maybe it is due to its rareness and the fact that they are so very hard to find that so many different varieties has arisen. These are often promoted falsely as being of the same breed. These cats may look in many ways close to the true american bombay and one can say that they are of the same phenotype but their genotype is totally different. Pure breed cats are registered all over the world after its genotype, by its specific genetic makeup not by its outer appearance.
The Asian Group describes a group of cats developed primarily in England. These cats are of European Burmese type and look but differ in color, patterns, temperament, and coat lengths.
It has been recorded that a few prominent English Burmese breeders bred their first all black litters as far back as the mid 1960's. They caused quite a stir and much interest at shows in the North of England. However, the breed as we know it today started in the early 1980's when a few British breeders decided that the Bombay would be an attractive addition to the existing breeds found in the UK. These first cats were most of them the results of a number of mismatings between an unregistered short haired cat and a European Burmese. This new breed was named Asian Self's with the breed number 72 and the black cats color description is bombay.
These black Asians earned preliminary recognition by the GCCF in 1990, while the full expression self's were formally recognized by the GCCF in October 1994.
A very similar breeding program to produce European Bombays has recently started in Germany by a group of people that prefer the type and look of European Burmese over the American.
In Australia they call their black look alikes for Australian Bombays and most breeders follow the GCCF standard but these cats are made from a mixture of Euro-Burmese with British Shorthairs, Exotics and of course the now famous "moggies" housecats . In New Zeeland they are calling their black cats Mandalay's.
Due to all the problems that has emerged from people in general world wide and also breeders not "knowing" or understanding the difference between a cat in the color bombay in other means black and a cat of the breed Bombay both the WCC and Nordic Independent needed to address the matter at their annual meeting last year.
Here in Sweden some breeders even changed all their cats pedigrees from Asian shorthair to Bombay and even promoted them at shows because they did not know or did not care about the differences. Even after asking Swedish Fife club Sverak back in 2004 on what their say in the matter was.
They still to this day November 2007 try really hard to promote these Asian cats as Traditional typed Bombays on their web pages and have not yet followed the directions to change back the pedigrees to the breed of origin. They even went as far as breeding a few of these Asians with purebred Bombays in Germany last year. Now 2007 they continuing to show of the offspring from these matings which are nothing but housecats that bring nothing good to the breed one could rather say they simply are dilutes it.
The latest update is that sadly enough a pair of breeders in a desperate and pathetic attempt to get away with this cheating are switching clubs, cattery name and homepages. One of their now retired Asian studs has also been mated in Germany abroad to a purebred Bombay to produce even more half-bred Bombays everything to avoid playing by the rules set by Nordic Independent and the rest of the cat fancy. The other breeder did the same with her Asian female hand recently been showing the offspring here in Sweden.
The same pair of Swedish breeders has also very recently imported a number of American Burmese and we all think it will be very interesting to see what cats they plan on mating them with. If we are lucky they have picked up a few things lately, otherwise they will surely use their transferred and re-registered cats one way or the other.
At the same time one honest breeder switched back all her cast pedigrees and are showing and breeding with them in the correct manner!
Sweden's Fife club Sverak gave their opinion on
the matter back in 2004 here (Swedish)
| Asian Breeders | Australian Bombay & Mandalay |
|---|---|
| Sweden | AustraliA Jammac |
| gERMANy | NEW Zeeland |
| ENGLAND | Asian cLUBS |
| ADVERSANE | The Asian Cat Association |
| Typha | The Bombay and Asian Self Breed Club |
