The Real Minuet Breeders

A website dedicated to preventing Minuet (Napoleon) lovers from being scammed by fraudulent websites claiming to be real Minuet (Napoleon) catteries.

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Bad Breeder Types

The Real Minuet Breeders website wants to help the public find legitimate Minuet (Napoleon) breeders and to avoid dealing with unscrupulous businesses that exploit the pet market. These businesses run the gamut of fraud to animal cruelty. If we can keep people from dealing with these businesses, we can force them to shut down their practices. Shutting down these businesses will save other people from becoming victims of scams and help protect animals from being unfairly, and often cruelly, exploited.

The following types of Minuet (Napoleon) businesses are what we encourage you to avoid, for your own financial safety and to prevent heartbreak, as well as to limit animal cruelty.

Fake Website Businesses

Fake website businesses are scams to con prospective kitten buyers out of money, offering no kittens in return. These fake businesses will have a victim on the line with a kitten, starting with a deposit, and continue to demand money to get the kitten, claiming transportation costs, certifications, etc. In the end, the victim is left without a kitten and no recourse to recover their money. To learn how to protect yourself against these fake websites, read up on our Warning Signs.


Kitty Mills

Kitty mills are breeding farms that breed cats (and dogs) en masse and misrepresent kittens as healthy, pedigreed offspring. These businesses keep their animals in cages or small spaces their whole life, deny nutrition and health care to their animals, refuse proper recovery time after breeding, and give no caring attention to their animals. Breeding cats are often diseased, malnurished, or injured. The offspring are generally sick and emaciated. When discovered by the authorities, the animals are confiscated and animal cruelty charges are filed.



Backyard Breeders

Backyard breeders produce kittens from cats that were not given breeding rights from the original breeder. A reputable breeder has the right to decide which kitten goes to a new owner with breeding rights. That breeder is responsible for deciding which kitten carries the right traits of its breed to pass on to offspring, in order to produce the best version of the breed possible. A breeder offering breeding rights with a kitten has determined that such a kitten is a healthy version of the breed with excellent traits. When a breeder denies breeding rights to a kitten, he has determined that the kitten is of “pet quality” only. A pet quality kitten is healthy and wonderful, but not of “breeding quality.”

A breeder may also withhold breeding rights to a buyer because the buyer has represented himself as just looking for a pet. Most buyers are truly just looking for a pet, but there are others who con a breeder into selling them a kitten as an unaltered pet, but then begins to breed the kitten. Resulting offspring of these cats without breeding rights will not be recognized as Minuets (Napoleons) and will never be able to be registered with any cat association.

Every legitimate breeder has the right to choose which kitten he wants to pass along genetic material to another generation of cats. This breeder takes careful consideration of which kittens those are. At the same time, every legitimate breeder decides who is responsible enough to be a good breeder. Someone who wants to become a breeder must prove themselves as having integrity, the time, space, and financial means to care for breeding cats and kittens, and has the cats’ well-being first and foremost in mind.


Designer Cat Breeders

Designer cat breeders are those breeders who attempt to alter the natural physical structure of a cat through selective breeding. This does not include breeders trying to get a certain color or coat pattern. It means breeders who focus on the body structure of a cat. In the case of Minuets (Napoleons), the designer breeders who are a detriment to the breed try to get shorter and shorter legs in the standard version of the breed than what is natural.

Let it be noted here: There are only two versions of a Minuet (Napoleon), a standard and nonstandard. A standard Minuet (short version) is a very capable cat that has the same mobility as a normal cat. However, if a Minuet (Napoleon) is bred to have shorter and shorter legs than is natural for their dwarfism, its mobility is severely limited, as well as its quality of life. This type of breeding goes against the ethics of legitimate Minuet (Napoleon) breeders. Buyers may think they are getting a novelty cat, but what they are getting is a cat with mobility issues.

Some Minuet (Napoleon) breeders are claiming that there are four versions of the Minuet (Napoleon) breed: nonstandard, standard, short, and rug hugger, but this is a total fabrication. This is what one breeder told a prospective Minuet (Napoleon) buyer, using Munchkin as a reference:

“Munchkins come in a total of 4 heights:

Non-Standard: "Normal" cat height does not carry the munchkin gene

Standard: Approx 2 inches shorter then a "regular" cat.

Short: Approx 2 inches shorter then a Standard.

Rug-Hugger: Approx 2 inches shorter then a Short”


The above is a horrifying idea of what this breeder is doing to the Minuet (Napoleon)/Munchkin breed. Dr. Leslie Lyons of the University of Missouri completed an extensive research program on dwarfism in cats. While she determined that there is no medical malady associated with the dwarfism gene in cats, she concluded that breeders should not strive to alter the natural length of the short leg, as it would greatly impair the cat in mobility and quality of life. Any breeder who does this should be ashamed of themselves and not be in the business of raising cats.


Brokers

Brokers are not breeders at all, but they deserve mention here. They are a menace to the industry and prevent Minuet (Napoleon) lovers from getting a kitten in a timely manner. Brokers buy kittens to re-sell to another person, or to a pet store, for a profit. Some brokers even set up websites to make it look like they are the breeder, but they are actually buying kittens and re-selling them. Use the same warning signs to identify a website as a fake business as you will a broker. Avoid purchasing a kitten from a broker, as it is difficult to keep track of these kittens after so much transferring of ownership.

Brokers will often misrepresent themselves as pet buyers to legitimate Minuet (Napoleon) breeders in order to get kittens. The Real Minuet Breeders work together to share their knowledge of these brokers to thwart their efforts so the deserving public of Minuet (Napoleon) lovers can get a kitten for themselves. Together, if Minuet (Napoleon) breeders do their part and buyers stop purchasing Minuets (Napoleons) from them, brokers won’t be successful in interfering with the honest interaction between breeders and Minuet (Napoleon) lovers.



As you can tell, there is a lot of unscrupulous dealings with Minuet (Napoleon) cats. However, this is not a single breed problem, nor is it specific to cats. Pet scams are rampant on the Internet.  It is said that upward of 80% of pets offered on the Internet are scams. Most of these pets-for-sale scams are on classified sites, such as Craigslist, GoKitty and Hoobly. That’s because there is no system on those sites to verify the integrity of the sellers.  Avoid finding a Minuet (Napoleon) on those sites, as you run the risk that you will be scammed. Use this website to find a Minuet (Napoleon) kitten from one of the Real Minuet Breeders here.

Blueskies Lady Bing and Queen Josephine of Tiny Lions

Note: A Minuet/Napoleon is only authentic if it was bred from a Munchkin to one of the Persian breed group (Persian, Himalayan, and Exotic Shorthair); or a Minuet (Napoleon) to one of the previous, or a Minuet (Napoleon) to a Minuet (Napoleon). Anyone presenting a kitten from a parentage different than those breeds just mentioned, such as a British Shorthair or other breed that mimics similar Persian features, is not selling a Minuet (Napoleon). CHECK PEDIGREES! A kitten that is not bred from the correct foundation breeds will not be able to register as a Minuet (Napoleon) in any cat association, no matter what that breeder says to the contrary.