Weird looking cat is an example of Persian extreme inbreeding gone wrong with undershot jaw and protruding eyes

This is a well-known viral video on various social media platforms. It is called "Weird-looking cat Wilfred goes viral with Michael Rapaport voiceover" on YouTube. The voiceover is very amusing. Due credit. But someone has to address the more important issue: the state of the cat. The appearance of this inbreed Persian cat is shocking. She has a grossly undershot jaw and bulging eyes.

I'd bet my bottom dollar that she has other health issues due to inbreeding depression. The breeder of this cat - and this is a case of deliberate artificial selection - has done a terrible job. She/he (usually a she) has been a complete unmitigated failure.

Inbreeding depression

I have a page on inbreeding depression which you can read by clicking on this link if you wish. But I'll cover some basic points here and the information comes from the well-known Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians at page 115.

One of the symptoms of inbreeding depression is stated as, "There may be physical indications such as asymmetry, crooked noses, misaligned jaws, and uneven eye size or alignment."

You can see in that quote a hint at what has happened to this cat. But there are many other symptoms of inbreeding depression such as developmental problems, poor growth, below standard adult cat size, an increase in the number of stillborn or abnormal kittens, reproductive problems, a reluctance for males to copulate and greater proneness to illness at any stage of development such as the regular appearance of cancer in young animals.

I've just touched on a few points there but basically the cat that you see in the video is going to be predisposed to ill-health and we should be aware of that. It is all very well to laugh at the cat because you find her amusing due to her abnormal appearance but if we take a mor realistic or serious approach, we see an inbred cat with anatomical deformities who is going to be ill and probably live a foreshortened life. I don't find that amusing. I find that sad and it should not have happened.

The breeder concerned could have avoided the creation of this cat by using healthier foundation cats and ideally (but it wouldn't happen) outcrossing to a non-purebred cat to increase genetic diversity. That won't happen because the breeder wants to try and reflect the breed standard but what they've done is create a kind of monster which does not meet the breed standard.

What happens with inbreeding depression is that it cannot itself induce anomalous as the breeders call it but it can bring to light "genetic defects which may be latent in the cats."

The kind of inbreeding we are talking about is mating mothers with offspring or offspring with each other and then doing it again more than once. It's the kind of mating that would obviously be completely illegal in the world of humans but which is entirely accepted in the world of cats.