The Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFé) (International Feline Federation) is a federation of
cat registries. There are currently forty-two member organizations in forty countries. Membership spans
Europe,
South America, and
Asia.[1] FIFé is one of the nine members of the
World Cat Congress.[2]
History
Founded by Marguerite Ravel, the federation was unofficially started in 1949 in
Paris, France, at a meeting between the Fédération Féline Française (French Cat Federation), the
Royal Cat Society of Flanders, and the Associazione Nazionale Felina Italiana (Italian National Feline Association).[3] At the organisation's first general assembly, in
Ghent, Belgium, the federation was officially founded. For the occasion, all participants received a cat shaped statuette, in pink sandstone, that Marguerite Ravel had commissioned from the sculptor
Jan Martel.[4]
The original name was Fédération Internationale Féline d'Europe or FIFE. In 1972, the
Brazilian Cat Club joined, making it necessary to change the Euro-centric name of the federation. The d'Europe was dropped, and the abbreviation was changed to FIFé.[4]
Organisation
FIFé is organized into national sub-federations (e.g.
Felis Britannica in the
United Kingdom) which handle pedigree registrations, cat shows and awards in each country. FIFé's executive board and general assembly are supported by five commissions:
FIFé currently recognizes 48 official breeds of cat for championship competitions. All breeds are divided into four categories and identified with a three-letter code, according to the Easy Mind System (EMS), used by FIFé and all its members to easily identify cats by alphanumeric codes.[5]