Dear

I am writing in hopes that your organization will be able to assist in a matter that I, and several others, find absolutely horrific.

A cat breeder in Marshall, Texas, Ms. Vickie Ives Speir, has intentionally bred cats for the purpose of increasing the incident of live births with deformed forelegs. In many cases, these forelegs resemble a kangaroo, thus causing the cats to have to "hop" about rather than walk. Ms. Speir calls these cats "Twisty Kats".

Ms. Speir insists that the cats are not in any pain. I find that impossible to believe. Any deformed, weight bearing limb, would, in my opinion, have to result in pain each time the animal attempted to "walk". Since I am not a medical professional though, I will leave that determination to reputable, qualified vets to determine.

While any reasonable person would feel compassion for any kitten born with such a defect, I feel nothing short of horror at anyone who attempts to "improve" a breed to "increase" the number of kittens born with such a deformity.

Ms. Speirs had a website, complete with pictues of several of these deformed cats and kittens. That site is no longer accessible, however, a copy of that site is available at https://www.angelfire.com/yt/twistykats/.

I hope you will take the time to view this site and see for yourself what I am referencing. I also hope you, and your organization will be able to lend your support to try to get this practice stopped. A mailing list has been started to try to put an end to this. The address is twistyban@onelist.com.

You can access it by joining Onelist.com at http://www.onelist.com.

Thank you in advance for your assistance and cooperation in this matter.

Sincerely,