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Standard and health?
A provocative question?
Let us read the standards regarding the aspects of their
proportions and implications for health.
Standard Siamese in
TICA,
Siamese Breed Group Standard, 05/01/2004:
HEAD:
Shape: Wedge, created by straight lines extending from the
nose to the tips of the ears forming a triangle; fine muzzle with
no muzzle break.
Profile: Long straight line from forehead to nose OR slight
change of angle midway over eyes (i.e. twoplaned).
Forehead: Flat.
Ears: Wide at base, strikingly large. Set to continue the
line of the wedge; neither too high nor too flared.
Eyes: Almond-shaped, mediumlarge, set with an Oriental
slant toward the nose such that a line from inner corner through
outer corner is in line with center of base of ear. No less than
the width of an eye between the eyes.
Chin: Tip of nose in line with tip of chin. |
The head shall form a triangle together with the ears.
Which triangle, where all three sides are equally long or where the
two sides of the head are equally long? The standard does not
describe, which triangle is meant.
In the picture to the left, the head and the ears form a harmonic
triangle.
In the picture to the right, the ears are set too deep.
 | Where at the nose do these straight lines start? |
| Is the tip of the nose meant here? |
What does 'triangle' mean?
| There are triangles, where all three sides are equally long. Is
this meant by the standard? |
| There are triangles, where two sides are equally long. Is this
meant by the standard? |
| The standard is inaccurate and leaves plenty of room for
interpretation, that the head may become longer and longer. |
The thing with the pinch
According to the standard the muzzle shall be formed without any
break (= pinch).
Is this possible in reality?
In both pictures one can see the pinch or whisker break, in the
picture to right (the blue arrows) the pinch can be seen very clearly.
The profile shall be long and straight.
Or there shall be a slight angle above the eyes.
The straight line shall start at the forehead and end at the nose.
| The standard is inaccurate here. Is the middle of the forehead
meant here?
Is the tip of the nose meant here? |
Or there shall be an angle above the eyes.
| Where above the eyes?
At the level of the eyebrows?
|
In the picture the middle of the forehead and the nose tip are
assumed, where the straight line shall be.
The obtuse angle could be at the level of the orange line.
The ears shall be strikingly large and shall be wide at the
base.
The wording 'strikingly' is questionable. Such a wording has led to
hyper-dimensionally large ears, which one can see already in modern
Siamese.
In this picture the ears are already very large.
| What does size mean? Is also the height of the ears meant? |
| Wide at the base (see the blue arrows) has already shown in
reality that the lower basis of the ears are set too deep. |
| The ears shall not be flaring (bent outward). In the
picture above the ears are very flaring. |
The eyes shall be almond in shape and medium in size.
How does an almond look like? What is meant with an almond here?
Almonds have a more rounded side and a more pointed side:
Look at both Siamese, which eye shape they have.
 |
 |
| The eyes are more like a
slit. |
The eyes are almond in
shape, as it is described in the standard. |
Eyes like a slit can be noticed often in modern Siamese.
Slit-shaped eyes are very often connected with deep set eyes and
the protrusion of the nictitating membrane.
If one wants to read more about the various eye-shapes, such a
description is mostly not existent in the organizations.
Only TICA has such a description in the
guidelines for the standard.
The eyes shall have an oriental slant toward the ears.
| What does oriental mean? |
| Can oriental eyes also be set straight? Are they then still
oriental? |
| You see in the using of the words that the terms used are
supposed to be already well known, where everyone might understand
and interpret something different. |
In the
list of terms used in the standards the following explanation can
be found:
ORIENTAL TYPE:
Long, triangular head with large ears; almond or oval eyes; long,
lean tubular body; long, fine-boned legs; long whippy tail. There
is minimal to no depth of flank. The Siamese is an example of
Oriental type. |
A cat is oriental typed, if it has almond shaped or oval
eyes. How the placement of the eyes shall be, is also left unanswered
here, and thus the term 'oriental slant' remains unexplained.
But the standard describes detailed, how oblique the eyes shall be
set:
When drawing a line form the inner eye angle to the outer eye
angle, the continuation of this line towards the ears shall meet the
middle of the ear base.
Standard
Siamese
in FIFe, issue 01.01.2007:
Head
Shape: medium size, in proportion to the body, well
balanced; wedge shaped with straight lines
the wedge starts at the nose and gradually increases in width in
straight lines on each side to the ears
there should be no whisker break in these two lines
the skull viewed in profile is slightly convex
Nose: long and straight continuing the line from the
forehead without any break
Muzzle: narrow
Chin: of medium size
the tip of the chin forms a vertical line with the tip of the nose
Ears
Shape: large and pointed, wide at the base
Placement: to continue the lines of the wedge
Eyes
Shape: medium in size, neither protruding nor recessed
almond in shape and set slightly slanted towards the nose to be in
harmony with the lines of the wedge |
The head is medium in size and in proportion to the body.
This standards tells something about the size of the head, whilst
the TICA-standard does not give a size.
What does 'in proportion to the body' mean?
This is a very general, but commonly used description, regardless
which organization is concerned.
Proportions express certain relations between some things =
relations of different sizes to each other.
In the Duden, Das Bedeutungswörterbuch (book of meanings), 3rd
edition, ISBN-10: 3-411-04103-X,
one will find the following explanation:
Proportion, die; -en:
Verhältnis verschiedener Größen oder Dinge, besonders verschiedener
Teile eines Ganzen zueinander;
die Proportionen stimmten nicht in dieser Zeichnung.
sinnverwandt: Größenverhältnis
In English:
Proportion, the; -s:
Relation of different sizes or things to each other, especially of
different parts in an entity as totality;
the proportions are not correct in this drawing.
Related sense: ratio, dimensions
That means, the size of the head must fit to the size of the body.
| If one looks then in the standard and reads in the column of the
body, the size of the body is not described there. |
| What is described, is the total size of the cat (in the column
General appearance), the cat shall be medium in size. |
If we assume, that the size of the body is also medium, we have the
following proportions:
body medium in size : head medium in size
The head is wedge shaped.
The wedge is described in detail in this standard:
| The wedge starts at the nose.
Where at the nose? Is the nose tip meant when continuing reading the
standard? |
| The wedge increases gradually in width on each side in
straight lines to the ears.
According to this wording also a wedge exists whose sides are not
formed by straight lines. And that is the case, if the standards
write about a 'modified wedge'.
But up to where of the ears does this wedge reach? To the base of
the ears? To the ear tips?
We can read under placement of the ears that they must be set to
continue the lines of the wedge. But this description does not help
much, because we cannot read anything in the standard, if one has to
draw an imaginary line from the middle of the ear base to the ear
tips, or if one has to draw a line at the outer edges of the ears. |
In the picture you see an orange and a yellow line indicating, how
the ears may continue the wedge (pale blue).
We have to revise our statement that the wedge is accurately
described.
There is a difference in the description of the head in this
standard to the TICA-standard.
Or not?
The skull viewed in profile shall be slightly convex.
| Note, that here is used the word 'skull'.
In anatomy the skull is the bony skeleton, divided into Cranium
cerebrale (Neurocranium, including the cranial base) and the Cranium
viscerale, i.e. the whole bone structure of the cranium. |
| It seems that this is not meant here in the standard, probably
the upper part of the head, the skull cap and the forehead are meant
here. |
The upper part of the head shall be "slightly" convex.
When viewing the picture above, it has to be questioned, if the upper
part of the head is still only slightly arched.
In reality one can see that the upper part of the head has reached
already a height, which exceeds far beyond 'slightly convex'.
 |
 |
| Although this 'skull' is
slightly convex and according to the standard, this cat would
loose against the cat to the right. |
Look at both pictures,
you will see that the strong convexity has shifted the face from
the middle to the lower part of the head - a strong convexity
increases consequently and logically the height of the upper part
of the head. |
The ears shall be large and pointed, wide at the base and shall
continue the lines of the wedge.
Let us refer to that, what we commented on the shape of the head
(the wedge).
| Where does the continuation of the lines start? Of course, at
the wedge.
But according to this standard we do not know how far the wedge
extends - it extends to the ears, thus the starting point for
the line to continue the wedge is undefined. |
| How shall one understand this continuation of the lines of the
wedge continued by the ears?
Has one to draw an imaginary line from the middle of the ear base to
the ear tips?
Or has one to draw a straight line along the outer edges of the
ears? |
The ears are large.
| There is nothing written in this standard (as for example in the
TICA-standard) that the ears shall be strikingly large or very
large, they shall be 'only' large. |
| Reality tells a very different story: The larger the more
preferable. |
 |
 |
| The height of the ears
is almost as long as the length of the head. But, never the less,
this cat would loose against the cat to the right. |
The height of the ears
(yellow line) is definitely much longer than the length of the
head (the two blue lines). |
Standard
Siamese
in CFA, Updated: 4/30/2006
| HEAD: long tapering
wedge. Medium in size in good proportion to body. The total wedge
starts at the nose and flares out in straight lines to the tips of
the ears forming a triangle, with no break at the whiskers. No
less than the width of an eye between the eyes. When the whiskers
are smoothed back, the underlying bone structure is apparent.
Allowance must be made for jowls in the stud cat.
SKULL: flat. In profile, a long straight line is seen from the
top of the head to the tip of the nose. No bulge over eyes. No dip
in nose.
EARS: strikingly large, pointed, wide at base; continuing the
lines of the wedge.
EYES: almond shaped. Medium size. Neither protruding nor
recessed. Slanted towards the nose in harmony with lines of wedge
and ears. Uncrossed.
NOSE: long and straight. A continuation of the forehead with no
break.
MUZZLE: fine, wedge-shaped.
CHIN and JAW: medium size. Tip of chin lines up with tip of
nose in the same vertical plane. Neither receding nor excessively
massive. |
The head shape is a long tapering wedge.
Where does the wedge start and where does it end?
| The total wedge starts at the nose.
But where at the nose? This is left open in this standard, like in
the other two standards.
Is the nose tip meant here? |
| The end of the wedge is clearly defined.
The wedge flares out in straight lines to the tips of the ears. |
How do wedge and triangle fit together?
| When reading the standard carefully, it can be noticed, that the
head is described once top-down (from the top of the head
down to the nose tip), because otherwise a long tapering wedge
does not make any sense. |
| And the other time the head is described bottom-up (from
the nose tip to the ear tips), because the wedge flares out.
And exactly here it is written that a triangle is formed. |
The skull is flat.
In profile a long straight line is seen from the top of the head to
the tip of the nose.
This sounds familiar. Or not?
| One must read the standards very carefully:
In the TICA-standard it is written that the forehead is flat. How
the skull looks like on top, if it is rounded or flat, is not
described. |
| According to the CFA-standard the skull is flat (it is assumed,
that with skull only the upper part of the head is meant and not the
correct anatomical meaning of skull is meant). Is the forehead then
also flat? |
Regardless this inaccurate using of the term 'skull', this question
is interesting and one has to think thoroughly about it:
| Is a flat skull to be preferred?
Eventually such a description might avoid in reality that the height
of the upper part is unduly exaggerated. |
| Or is a slightly convex skull to be preferred?
As commented above, reality tells a very different story, because
the height of the upper part of the head has unduly increased and
does not comply with the standard any more of being 'slightly
convex'. |
A long straight line from the top to the nose (tip).
| According to the TICA-standard the long straight line runs
from forehead to the nose.
Where the line starts on the forehead and where the line ends on the
nose, is left open in this standard. |
| According to the FIFe-standard the nose is long and straight
and continues the line from the forehead without any "break".
Thinking logically, this line is also long, because the nose is
long. The line is also straight, because it continues the straight
nose without break to the forehead.
But also here it is left open in the standard, where on the forehead
this line starts and if the nose tip is meant with the word 'nose'. |
| According to the CFA-standard the long straight line runs
from the nose tip to the top of the upper part of the head.
Only in this standard the starting point and the end point of this
long straight line are described accurately. |
The eyes are slanted towards the nose, and in harmony with the
lines of the wedge and the ears.
What does that mean?
| Which angle of the eyes is meant? |
| Which slanted position is in harmony with the lines of the wedge
and the ears?
What harmony is, is left up to interpretations. |
Conclussions
| There are some distinct wordings in the standards. The reality
deviates quite a lot from the ideal picture.
Why? Who is involved in and causes these deviations? |
| There are differences in the standards, how the upper part of
the head shall be.
These differences are quite important, because in reality everybody
seems to understand something different with the wording 'slightly
convex' than it is written in the standard. |
| The size of the ears is described differently in the standards.
The small word 'strikingly' is questionable and risky, because it
leads in reality to hyper-dimensionally huge ears, depending, how
this word is interpreted. The proportion between the height of the
ears and the length of the entire head has been and is shifted
towards a permanent increase of the height of the ears. |
| In all standards the eyes shall be slanted, but only the TICA-standard
explains, what 'slanted' means.
In both the other standards we read about 'harmony', but what
harmony is, is left up to the interpretation. |
| It is not described in any of these standards, where the face
shall be.
As the reality shows already, the proportion between the upper part
of the head and the face starts to become inharmonic, unbalanced and
disproportional, because the face is shifted further down the head.
|
Perhaps it is provocative, but hopefully it makes many people thinking:
The standards leave too much room for interpretations and seem not to
be written under the aspects of healthy and harmonic proportions.
© katzenzeitung 2/2007 |
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