Wildcat Haven Feral Cat Neutering Shocker

Most experts agree that one of the biggest threats to the continued existence of the Scottish Wildcat is hybridisation by interbreeding with hybrid, feral, and domestic cats. To reduce the number of  non wildcats for real wildcats to breed with, Wildcat Haven have informed that they were engaged in a program of neutering feral and domestic cats. They explicitly claimed to be neutering feral cats both on their website to everybody visiting it, and on Twitter to user #htscam.

Have you guessed yet? Yes, there's a problem.

Feral cats can legally be trapped and neutered without legal issues, but as they are classed as a non native species, they can't be legally released without a license. Nobody at Wildcat Haven has possessed a licence to release feral cats since October 2015. If anyone from Wildcat Haven was to release a feral cat, they would presumably be doing so illegally, and may even be committing a criminal offence. So what has been going on?

The Freedom Of Information documents mentioned in our last post may illuminate the matter.  According the FOI documents Wildcat Haven were asked by solicitors Harper Macleod LLP acting for Scottish Natural Heritage the following question.

"Have Wildcat Haven staff/personnel undertaken any cage trapping and releasing of feral cats or wildcats/hybrids since 1/10/2015? If so, how many feral cats or wildcats/hybrids were caught, released and when?"

The response to that question from solicitors Clifford Chance LLP acting for Wildcat Haven is as follows.

"We are instructed that our client has not undertaken trapping or release of feral cats or wildcats/hybrids since 1/10/2015, our client has undertaken neutering of pet cats, for which consent forms from the cats' owners have been provided in every case."

Yet even now Wildcat Haven are claiming on their website "We have done this by humanely trapping feral cats, neutering them and releasing them" and "Neutering programme for all feral cats and low-grade hybrids." A PDF copy of their "What We Do" website page taken on 08/07/2019 can be seen HERE.

If they have not undertaken trapping or release of any feral cats since October 2015 as per instruction to their solicitor, how can Wildcat Haven's claims to be neutering feral cats be true?

Wildcat Haven themselves currently say on their website "The biggest threat to the Scottish Wildcat is hybridisation.  More specifically, when genetically pure wildcats mate with feral cats instead of other wildcats, the gene pool becomes diluted and the species (Felis Sylvestris) literally breeds itself out of existense.".

If they are not actually neutering feral cats, which they claim is the biggest threat to Scottish Wildcats, what is the purpose of the organisation? Why would anybody lend support to an oganisation which is lying about one of it's principal objectives?

Reply to question from Scottish National Heritage

Wildcat Haven claim to have neutered a feral cat on Twitter posted in February 2017

Highland Titles Wildcat Haven And Scottish Wildcat Kittens

In mid 2018 it was widely reported in the media that the company Wildcat Haven CIC had come into possession of three Scottish wildcat kittens. The media published stories indicated that two kittens were found abandoned by the side of a road by a member of the public, and one was trapped by a farmer who’s chickens the kitten had taken an interest in. These purported wildcat kittens were held in three purpose-built enclosures in forestry plantations belonging to Highland Titles.

Highland Titles certainly haven’t been shy about claiming they had Scottish wildcats.  Estate manager Stewart Borland in their own publicity material made a claim that Highland Titles “have three wildcats”. Other quotations from their publicity material include, “video of one of our Wildcats”,  “Wildcat Kittens at the Highland Titles Nature Reserve”,  “Two orphaned Scottish wildcat kittens”,  “we’ve been able to give these two orphaned wildcat kittens a lifeline”,  “a lovely mix of stills & video of the 2018-19 Highland Titles wildcats”, “In June 2018, two wildcat kittens were handed in to our wildlife vet”.

Looks good so far, according to the media reports and publicity, there are now three Scottish wildcat kittens, one of the most endangered species on the planet, in captivity, being rehabilitated for release back to the wild. But as with a lot of things concerning Highland Titles and Wildcat Haven, the media reports and their own publicity material often bear little resemblance to reality.

So, what is the reality? According to information obtained by way of a freedom of information request made to Scottish National Heritage and passed to us by a reader, we discover the following.

Two of the kittens were identified by experts at Scottish Wildcat Action and Scottish National Museum to be hybrids. That is by examining photographs and video footage of the kittens they determined they were hybrid cats, and in their opinion do not meet the criteria to be classed as Scottish wildcats. To date, one of these hybrids has been neutered and released by Highland Titles, the other remains in captivity.

As noted in the SNH FOI request, “Highland Titles has released one neutered hybrid under licence, a second hybrid remains in captivity”.

What of the third kitten? According to the pelage scores performed by Scottish wildcat identification experts at Scottish Wildcat Action and Scottish National Museum, the third cat scored highly, not quite highly enough to be conclusively identified as a Scottish wildcat by examination of the supplied photographs, but highly enough to warrant further investigation and genetic testing. There is a distinct possibility this animal could qualify as being a Scottish wildcat. It shouldn’t be a problem to carry out further identification as the cat in question is in captivity, right?

Unfortunately, as is so often the case where Highland Titles are involved, there’s a problem. According to the documents from SNH, “A third individual, which scored as potentially wildcat based on pelage, escaped from its enclosure”. This is confirmed in correspondence between Highland Titles and Scottish National Heritage. So, according to the SNH documents, the only one of the three kittens which is potentially a wildcat, either escaped or was released from its enclosure, before positive identification could be completed!

To date, despite recapture attempts by Highland Titles, the missing cat has not been secured and is still at large somewhere, but there has been no indication in any reports we can find from either Highland Titles or Wildcat Haven that this cat is missing.

Instead, bizarrely, Highland Titles made the following claim on July 2019 via the Highland Titles Nature Reserve Facebook page. “We are pleased to say that experts agreed that one of the kittens scored highly enough to pass the purity test. This kitten has been released”.

According to the documents we are in possession of we cannot see how this can be true. The only one of the kittens which scored highly, but could not according to experts at SNH and NSM be positively confirmed as a wildcat without further examination, escaped from its enclosure in early June 2019 before identification was competed, and has not been recaptured. So how could any wildcat possibly have been released?

To be clear, despite Highland Titles’ claims, to date as far as can be determined from documents supplied by SNH and correspondence between SNH and Highland Titles, no recognised expert has positively identified any animal in the care of Highland Titles as a Scottish wildcat. The only kitten in their possession which scored highly enough to warrant further investigation and genetic testing, escaped, or was released from its enclosure before identification by experts from Scottish National Heritage and  National Museums Scotland could be completed, and it has not to date been recaptured.

Highland Titles were granted a license to release two feral cats earlier this year. Why would they apply for a license to release feral cats if the cats in question were wildcats? 

To date Highland Titles who claim to “operate perhaps the finest wildcat rehabilitation facility in Europe” cannot realistically claim with any certainty that they have ever had a single actual Scottish wildcat in the facility.

As usual with Highland Titles and Wildcat Haven, it’s wise not to take their claims at face value without independent verification. As is the case here, the claims often fall short of reality, and frequently do not stand up to any real scrutiny.

The pelage scores recorded taken from the FOI request can be seen in the image below, a score of 17 or above indicates that the animal may be classed as a Scottish wildcat, but would likely still require close examination and genetic testing for clear verification.

Expert pelage scoring of the kittens under the care of Highland Titles was performed by Dr Roo Campbell of Scottish Wildcat Action, and Dr Andrew Kitchener from National Museums Scotland.

You can find a blog post about wildcat identification by National Museums Scotland's Andrew Kitchener, Principal Curator of Vertebrates in the Department of Natural Sciences who developed the pelage scoring system HERE