Korat recognition in Europe
(FIFe)

 

In 1974 Elfi Kleive and her family returned from Thailand bringing Europe's first Korats with them. When Elfi Kleive came to Norway and tried to register her Korats, she was very surprised to learn that the Korat was not yet recognized as a breed by FIFe. She decided to change that. But finding a cat-club that would help in this progress was not so easy. Finally, NRR (Norske Katteklubbers Riksforbund, the Norwegian cat club organization under FIFe) decided to help.

The reason that the Korat was not yet recognized by FIFe was "we have enough blue cats already". The fact that the Korat is an old original breed, which has been allowed to stay unchanged for several hunderds of years in its home country did not seem to be important.

In 1977 a proposal for recognizing the Korat was put to NRR's Annual General Meeting so NRR could put it to FIFe. NRR did not react to this proposal.

It was used for FIFe to automatically approve all breeds which were approved by GCCF (the British cat club association stands alone, but is recognized by FIFe and cooperates to some extent). In 1976 the Korat was approved by GCCF with the colour-code 34, without certificate status - we were extremely pleased. Buti it was not to be that easy. FIFe refused, because the GCCF president declared at the GCCF Annual General Meeting that it had been a mistake!

The year after we reset the proposal to FIFe. They said no!

In the mean time, the number of Korats was increasing, Elfi Kleive was breeding her original Thai imports and a new stud had been imported. Elfi Kleive talked to everybody she could think of, defending the Korat's right to be recognized as a breed. She was invited to give a speech about the Korat. She and another breeder made this speech, bringing with them several cats.

In the winter 1978/79, Elfi Kleive was informed that in order to recognize new breeds, FIFe demands judgements and recommendations from 10 different judges. So the work began. All available Korats were shown at all possible shows.

Spring 1979, Elfi Kleive managed to gather 32 Korats at one show! Norge Rundt (a TV show) transmitted from the show. The papers even reported from the show. All the shorthair judges preseent at the show were asked to sign a petition recommending the Korat be recognized, which they were all willing to do.

Fall 1980, there was a show in Sandefjord (Elfi Kleive's home town). Anneliese Hackmann (Vice-President of 1.DEKzV in Germany, judge and chairperson of FIFe committee of judges) was invited specially to judge the Korats, and she did so for hours. 38 Korats were shown at this occasion. Anneliese Hackmann informed Elfi that she and the others were following the wrong procedure for getting a new breed approved. A new breed is to be presented to FIFe's Committee of Judges. The work for the Korat had to start all over again.

The Korat was offered to try again at a show in the fall of 1981. Four important judges accepted the invitation to the show and all available Korats were again mobilized. An attractive PR-booth was also arranged. Saturday morning, 28 Korats and their rather nervous owners were assembled. The cats were judged endlessly. All the Committee members had to see and handle them. On top of all that, Dr. Martin (a German judge and a member of FIFe's Committee of Judges) ran around and took photographss of all the blue cats at the show.

The judges decided against the Korat, again!

In November 1981, the Korat gang traveled to Vienna to visit FIFe's Annual General Meeting. The day before the Annual General Meeting, the Committee of Judges had a long debate about approving the Korat. In the end, they were asked to take a vote - 5 voted in favour and 4 against! The Korat gang celebrated their decision immensely! After the gala dinner, Dr. Martin invited them to a slide-show of 'blue cats' - all the Korat pictures he had taken during the show were there! They were given a piece of paper and a pencil each and were to write down which cats they saw on the slides as fast as possible, because he was of the opinion that no judge was able to tell the difference between a Korat and any other blue cat just by a quick glance. Of course, most of them present managed the test. The average score was about 32 right out of 35!

The vote and the Annual General Meeting the next day gave the same result. The Korat was approved, without certificate status, but that was normal at the time. The Korat gang was exstatic!

Now the preliminary work for the Korat had succeeded. Now it was time to work with the Korat, so the judges could be presented with the best specimens possible and learn to see what to expect from a good Korat.

New studs were imported and bred. The number of Korats increased to about 100 cats.

In 1983 the Korat was awarded Champion-status. After a while the first Korat champion was celebrated. All the work had been worth while. The Korat has since been awarded general certificate status like all other breeds. In 1992, there were 12 European Champions/Premiers.

There are still a few of the old fighters and breeders left. New ones are becoming interested in other parts of Europe. There are still a few FIFe-breeders in Norway and Sweden a few in Finland, a few in Germany, one in Italy and one in Denmark. There may be other breeders in Europe, but they are not members of FIFe.

Written by Elfi Kleive
translated by Camilla Baird

 

Click here to read about the hard work done in Europe for the Korat recognition
in this this nice article written by Elfi Kleive for Koratworld