FDZ_info

History of CROATIAN FELINE CLUB ASSOCIATION

The first felinology steps in Croatia date back to early 1980s. At that time Croatia was a part of SFR Yugoslavia. Many of our members, founders of the current Association, already bred cats with pedigrees, but regretfully these were not internationally recognised. Breeders were members of the Mali Uzgajivac (Small Breeder) from Bjelovar, a breeder club of pure-bred cats. Besides breeding cats, this club bred all small animals. The most advanced breeders in the former state were the ones from the Republic of Slovenia. They founded their Association already in 1985, and in 1988 they were accepted in the International Feline Association (FIFe) membership.

Our breeders became members of Slovenian clubs, in order to be able to have internationally recognised pedigrees and participate in international championship shows. The shows organised by the Bjelovar club were only exhibitions in which there was no cat evaluation.

In the course of time the Bjelovar club breeders came to the idea to become independent and form a felinology society in Zagreb that would then affiliate with the Slovenian Association, and as such enter the FIFe. This was done in 1989/1990, but the situation at that time prevented further efforts in this area. Since SFR Yugoslavia fell apart in 1991 and the countries in its territory became independent, the Croatian Feline Club Association (SFDH) was founded in February 1992. Members of the SFDH initiated a procedure for joining the Croatian Feline Club Association to the FIFe.

Exceptional efforts of the Zagreb club members and unbiased assistance of Slovenian colleagues met the conditions of all provisions in stages. In 1994, at the General Assembly in Prague, our Association was admitted to full FIFe membership, for the reason that it was positively evaluated by its mentor (Mr. Mark Pohl – international judge and in that time vice-president of FIFe) , and the international judges who had participated in our shows. The new president of the Association Dr. M. Stiplocek has worked dedicatedly on further development of felinology.

Today the SFDH consists of the following three clubs: FD Krizevci, FD Split and FD Zagreb. It has around 250 active members and more then 50 recognised catteries. It also has one international judge since 1997, Ms Vesna Riznar-Resetic, BS E which is today the president of SFDH and breeding manager.
(Prepared by Ms. Vesna Riznar Resetic)