The Cat Fanciers’ Association Announces Partnership with Livre Officiel des Origines Félines (LOOF), of France

February 6, 2019

The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) – the world’s largest registry of pedigreed cats – is proud to enter into a four-part agreement with The Federation for the Management of the Official Book of Feline Origins, more commonly known under the acronym LOOF, in the areas of breeds and colors, catteries, cat show exhibition, and in the recognition and exchange of feline judges.

AGREEMENT PROTOCOL

The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA)
260 East Main Street
ALLIANCE, OH 44601 USA
represented by Mr. Mark Hannon, President

and

la Fédération pour la gestion du Livre Officiel des Origines Félines (LOOF)
1 rue du Pré Saint Gervais –
93500 PANTIN France
represented by Mr. Fabrice Calmès, Président

agree on the following:

Part 1. Breeds and Colors Recognized by CFA and/or LOOF

1. CFA acknowledges that LOOF is the sole organization entitled to establish official pedigrees for cats born in France. CFA will encourage people registering cats with CFA to request a LOOF pedigree prior to a CFA registration for all their cats born in France.
2. CFA is not required to register LOOF registered cats/kittens for breeds and colors not recog-nized by CFA. LOOF is not required to register CFA registered cats/kittens for breeds and colors not recognized by LOOF.
3. In the spirit of cooperation, the scientific committees of both CFA and LOOF will share in-formation toward the acceptance of new breeds and colors, and share their respective con-straints on allowed matings.
4. LOOF will recognize CFA certified pedigrees for breeds and colors also recognized by LOOF, for all cats born outside France as long as this is not infringing the regulation of the country where the cat has been born.
5. Both LOOF and CFA will ensure that a request for a new cattery name is not granted if the same cattery name is already registered to another person in the other federation. To this avail, a published up-to-date list of cattery names shall be maintained online by each federation.
   CFA link: https://www.cfa.org/cattery-name-index/
   LOOF link: http://www.loof.asso.fr/eleveurs/liste_affixes.php

Part 2. Cat Shows and Exhibitions

1. Cat shows and exhibitions held under the rules of LOOF and CFA can be held simultaneous-ly in the same show hall, with the provision that no animal except for domesticated felines will be allowed in the spaces dedicated to cats in the show hall except for certified assistance animals. No wild feline will be accepted in these shows.
2. During these joint/in conjunction shows and exhibitions, “traditional judging” will be held under LOOF rules and “American ring-style judging” will be held under CFA rules, subject to the above conditions and to the CFA – in conjunction guidelines, always newest version – https://www.cfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/In-Conjunction-Show-Guidelines.pdf
3. The show committees are responsible for the proper management of these joint shows under their respective LOOF and CFA rules.
4. For all CFA shows held in France, CFA will require that microchip numbers are listed in the CFA show catalog for all cats, as well as the LOOF pedigree number (or pedigree application number for the kittens if the pedigree is not received yet) for all cats having a microchip number starting with 250, because all microchips used in France start with this number.

Part 3. Recognition and Exchange of Judges

1. LOOF will recognize CFA judges for the categories in which they are qualified to judge in CFA, under the condition that they judge according to LOOF rules and standards during their LOOF traditional judging sessions.
2. CFA will recognize LOOF licensed judges in the categories in which they are qualified to judge in LOOF, under the condition that, during their CFA ring-style judging sessions, they judge according to CFA rules, to CFA standards and to the CFA guest judging process, described in detail in the following document: https://www.cfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/judges-guest-approval.pdf
3. Both CFA and LOOF will maintain a published online up-to-date listing of judges with their qualifications.

Part 4. Agreement Changes and Reconciliation

1. Both LOOF and CFA will provide representatives to arbitrate any problems arising from any of provisions in this agreement. For LOOF it will be Loof’s current president, for CFA it will be CFA’s current region 9 (Europe) regional director. If the two representatives are unable to reach agreement on any matter that they are responsible to arbitrate, then each of them shall select a third party and those two third parties shall select a single, final, arbitrator to make a final decision in the arbitration.
2. This agreement will become valid when signed by both organizations. It is written in English and French, both versions being equal.
3. It will remain valid unless replaced by a new agreement signed by both parties or denounced through registered mail by either one of the organizations, upon 3-months advance notice.