Meet Ging-go the Leopard Cat

Meet Ging-go the 1-year-old male leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis). He has ben kept as a pet for the last year, his owner was unable to keep him and take him to her new home so has asked us to help him. He was initially given to her as a surplus animal from a Bengal cat breeder, and she was told he was a Bengal cat,  it was not long before she relised that he was acctually a leopard cat, whcih is a wild animal, they do not make suitable pets.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists this species as Least Concern (LC). Leopard Cat skins are commercially traded internationally for the fur trade, primarily coats. Skins are also used as decorations in some parts of its range. Leopard Cats are occasionally kept as pets, sometimes taken from the wild and sometimes from captive breeding and they have been interbred with domestic cats, particularly in the West, to make the popular Bengal breed. Their bones are used in some traditional Asian medicines. Leopard Cat populations in Bangladesh, India and Thailand are listed on CITES Appendix I, and all other populations are listed on Appendix II. Although commercial trade is now much reduced this species continues to be hunted throughout most of its range for fur, for food and as pets. They are also widely viewed as poultry pests and killed in retribution. Leopard Cats can hybridize with domestic cats, as is shown by the popular domestic breed, the Bengal Cat although most of these exotic cats are now bred from Bengal Cat stock rather than wild crosses.

We have determined that Ging-go is not a Bengal cat after all. He will be housed at WFFT in a larger more suitable environment and we hope in the future he can be with his own species and may be rehabilitated and released back to the wild. For now, he is settling in to his new life at WFFT under close observation of our vet team. Keep Wildlife Wild and Not as Pets.