'Really think twice' Fans urged to avoid Swift's choice of cat

To any devoted Taylor Swift fan, the musician's cats are almost as well known as she is, frequently appearing in her TikTok postings and with hundreds of millions of posts devoted to them across social media.

- Esther Addley

But as Swift's Eras tour prepares to make landfall in the UK next month, animal welfare experts have urged her fans not to buy the same breed of cat as the singer, saying the characteristics that make them cute also condemn them to a life of constant pain.

Swift has three cats, two of whom, Olivia Benson and Meredith Grey, are Scottish folds, a breed distinguished by a genetic mutation that makes their ears fold flat and gives them an "owl-like" appearance. But the same gene that causes floppy cartilage in their ears also causes a condition called osteochondrodysplasia, which leads to abnormal bone growth, arthritis and severe pain.

Ironically, in Scotland, where the breed originated and where Swift plays her first UK date in Edinburgh on 7 June, the breeding of Scottish folds is in effect banned, while other countries, including the Netherlands, Australia and Norway, have also placed restrictions on them on animal welfare grounds.