Jean Mill
(1926 - 2018)
'''Jean Mill''' (May 11, 1926 – June 7, 2018) was cat breeder, and a
conservationist who worked to protect the Asian leopard cat. Mill is best know as the founder of the modern Bengal cat breed: Mill
successfully crossed the wild Asian leopard cat with a domestic cat, and then Backcrossing|backcrossed the offspring through five
generations to create the domestic Bengal. Mill made contributions in two other
cat breeds: the[Himalayan cat|Himalayan and
the standardized version of the Egyptian Mau. Jean and her first husband Robert
Sugden were involved in a precedent-setting case
about the United States government's power to monitor short wave radio
communications. Jean Mill has also authored two books.
Conservation
efforts and breeding rationale
Jean Mill was very concerned about the hunting and poaching
of the Asian Leopard cats to supply the fur trade. Mill has said that her
desire to save the Asian Leopard cat led to the creation of the Bengal cat
breed.
"I
deliberately crossed Leopard cats with domestic cats for several important
reasons. At this time, wild cats were being exploited for the fur market.
Nursing female leopard cats defending their nests were shot for their pelts,
and the cubs were shipped off to pet stores worldwide. Unsuspecting cat lovers
bought them unaware of the danger, their unpleasant elimination habits and the
unsuitability of keeping wild cats as pets. ...I hoped that putting a leopard
coat on a domestic cat the pet trade could be safely satisfied. If fashionable
women could be dissuaded from wearing furs that look like their friend' pets
the diminished demand would result in less poaching of wild
species." Jean Mill
Himalayan cat contributions
In 1948, Jean Mill worked to develop the Himalayan
cat, a longhaired breed of mixed Persian cat and Siamese
cat ancestry. (1) She said she
originated the breed by 1954 and was showing off her prizewinning cats by 1960.
( 2) Jean Mill said, "I pursued the dream,
and was among the early contributors to the Himalayan breed. I gave a
presentation to the ACFA board in March of l965 in Texas asking that they be recognized, but the board was half Persian breeders, the
other half Siamese breeders, none of whom liked the idea of mixing the two!
When the Himalayans lost their challenge, it was time to move on." (3)
Creating the Bengal breed
There were many other breeders involved in developing
the Bengal breed, most notably Pat Warren, William Engle and Willard Centerwall. Jean Mill is considered the originator of the
breed because she created a domestic Bengal past the F4 generation, and then
tirelessly promoted the new breed. (4)
1960s:
Mill's first hybrid cat
While living in Yuma Arizona in 1963, Mill (Jean Sugden) made the first recorded deliberate cross of a
domestic tomcat with a wild Asian leopard cat. (5) The Asian leopard cat|leopard cat Mill used was a spotted five to twelve
pound shy wild cat species from Asia. Jean Sudgen purchased a female Asian Leopard cat (named
Malaysia) from a pet store in 1961. She put a black domestic tomcat in her
cage. The animals mated and produced two kittens, a male and a female called KinKin. (4) This was the first effort to use hybrid
offspring to create a breed of domestic cat with the loving nature of a favored
fireside tabby and the striking look associated with Leopards, Ocelots and
Jaguars. (6)
1970's The cats which became the foundation cats for Jean Mill
In 1970 Mill resumed her breeding efforts and in 1975 she
received of a group of Bengal cats which had been bred for use in genetic
testing at Loyola University New Orleans by Dr. Willard Centerwall.
In the 1970's Dr. Willard R. Centerwall, professor of
pediatrics and director of genetics services at Loma Linda University,
conducted genetic research with the offspring of the Asian leopard cat (Fells bengalensis) and the American domestic cat (Felis calus). The Asian leopard
cat does not have the feline leukemia virus built into its system,
scientists in cancer research were interested in what happens to the leukemia
genome in the offsprings of the leopard cat and the
domestic cat. (7) When Dr. Centerwall concluded his
studies he gifted the cats from the study to Jean Mill. Eventually, these same
hybrids were instrumental in the Bengal breed's development. Through a mutual
contact, Dr. Centerwall and Jean Sugden
Mill met in 1980. Centerwall had several F1 kittens
needing homes and he gave them to Jean Mill. (8)
1982 Spotted domestic cats from India
In 1982 Mill found a spotted domestic cat in a pound. And then on a trip to
India in 1982, she saw another spotted domestic cat "running around the
rhinoceros compound" in a zoo. "He was an orange cat with little
spots all over him," Mill said. "He was so unusual, I asked the
zookeepers to catch him for me
The pound cat (Finally Found) and the Indian street
urchin (Millwood Toby of Delhi) were bred with the lab cats, and the Bengal cat
line began to form. (9) The curator of the New Delhi Zoo also gave Mill the
sister of the cat in the rhinoceros cage which Mill
named Tasha of New Delhi. These two Indian domestic cats Toby and Tasha
contributed greatly to the Bengal breed.
Egyptian Mau breeding
Mill registered Millwood Tory of Delhi as an Egyptian Mau. Mill also imported
other Egyptian Mau kittens from India. Mill also needed males
to stud the F1 and F2 kittens resulting from the Asian Leopard cat since hybrid
males are often sterile. Mill also used Egyptian Maus
to raise her F1 Bengal kittens. Several Egyptian Mau breeders, used Millwood
Tory of Delhi 'Indian Mau' genes to improve upon the weak, inbred, poor
tempered, poor producing bloodlines. In 1985 Jean Mill's
Egyptian Mau line was retracted by the Cat Fanciers' Association.
Eventually they all reinstated and the bloodline is now used extensively in
modern Egyptian Maus. (3)
Bengal cat breeding resumed
Mill combined her spotted domestic cats with the Centerwall
cats and with that Mill was able to restart her Bengal breeding program: where
others breeders had failed to get the Bengal breed established because of the
sterility of the F1,F2, F3, and F4 early generation
Bengals, Jean Mill succeeded. Mill successfully backcrossed Bengals until she
achieved the F5 Bengal with a domestic cat temperament. The modern Bengal breed
traces to cats bred by Jean Mill in the early 1980's. (10) (1) Others also began breeding Bengals – and in 1986 The
International Cat Association (TICA) accepted the Bengal cat as a new breed:
Bengals gained championship status in 1991. (6) Where
other early Bengal breeders Like William Engle only succeeded in creating a
sterile hybrid, Jean Mill succeeded in creating a Domestic Bengal cat. (11)
Jean Mill's cattery was called '''Millwood'''.
Education
Jean Mill earned a degree from Pomona College in psychology in 1945.
Mill attended graduate classes in genetics at [[UC Davis]] in 1946. At
U.C. Davis Mill wrote a term paper which proposed
crossing the popular Persian breed of cat with the new Siamese breed to make
'Panda Bear' cats. (1)
Personal life
Jean Mill was born May 14, 1926 in Des Moines. Mill moved to California to
attend college and by 1948 was one of three breeders working to develop the
Himalayan cat, a Longhaired cat|longhaired breed
of mixed Persian cat and Siamese cat ancestry. (1)
Jean Mill married a wealthy rancher and cotton farmer named Robert Sugden and moved to his ranch in Yuma, Arizona. (12)
When he died in 1965, she move into an apartment and
put her conservation/breeding efforts on hold. The Sugden's
had a daughter named Judy in 1948.
Jean Mill got married a second time to John Krummel
and together they lived in Pomona, California until they divorced.
In 1975, Mill married engineer Robert J. Mill March 1, 1978 in Los Angeles
County, California, and moved to his one-acre horse property in Covina Hills,
California. (1) Jean Mill and Bob Mill continued to live in California and they
bred Bengal cats under the name Millwood. Bob Mill died September 21, 1999.
Death and legacy
Jean Mill died Mill died June 6, 2018. Her conservation efforts are part of her
legacy. Jean Mill created a domestic Bengal cat with markings like a leopard
and the temperament of a house cat in order to protect wild cats from
overhunting. It is unknown what impact the Jean Mill's Bengal cat breed had on
the fur industry. It is known that fur fell out of fashion in the United
States. "More than 60% of Americans find killing animals for fur amounts
to cruelty, according to an Angus Reid survey." (13)
As of 2019, Bengal breeders number in the thousands. Jean Mill got the Bengal
cat accepted into TICA in 1986. Since that time Bengals have been accepted into
all of the cat registries: Cat Fanciers' Association CFA, Fédération Internationale Féline FIFe, World Cat Federation
WCF,[Australian Cat Federation ACF, American Cat
Fanciers Association ACFA/CAA, Governing Council of the Cat Fancy QCCF, and New
Zealand Cat Fancy (NZCF).
Jean Mill also inspired her daughter Judy Sugden to
create a new cat breed, the Toyger. (13)
Books
- Mill,
Jean S. (1999) [1997]. Guide to Owning a Bengal Cat. Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania: Facts on File, Incorporated, Chelsea
House Publishers. ISBN 9780791054598.
- Breeding
Better Bengals: Facts and Fallacies (1999)
Further reading
*{{cite book |title=Bengal Cats. Bengal Cat Owners Manual.
Guide to Owning a Happy Bengal Cat |first1=Steve |last1=Richardson
|edition=Illustrated |publisher=Amazon Digital Services LLC, Kdp Print Us |year=2015 |isbn=1910617555 |id=ISBN
9781910617557}}{{self-published inline|date=March
2019}}
References
1. Hamilton, Denise (March 10, 1994). "A
Little Cat Feat: A Covina woman's efforts at cross-breeding
wild and domestic felines are paying off handsomely". Los Angeles Times. p. 2. Retrieved January
27, 2019.
2. "Queen Jean Sugden Raises Himalayan Cats". The
Yuma Daily Sun. January 11, 1960. p. 5. Retrieved 2019-03-29.
3. Mill, Jean S. "Milestones at Millwood". Millwood
Bengals. Jean Mill. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
4. Jean S., Mill (1998). Guide to Owning a Bengal
Cat. Neptune City, NJ: TFH Publications.
p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7938-4663-4.
5. Jones, Joyce (September 20, 1992). "The
Pet Cat That Evokes the Leopard". The New York
Times. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
6. "Bengal
Breed". TICA. The
International Cat Association. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
7. "Leukemia Hereditary Factors Under Probe By Researcher".
The Desert Sun. Palm Springs. Calif. –. April 19, 1977. Retrieved March 8, 2019.8. "BENGAL CAT ORIGINS". Bengals
Illustrated. Award Winning Publications.
Retrieved March 8, 2019.
10. "About the Bengal". CFA.
The Cat Fanciers' Association, Inc.,.
Retrieved March 8, 2019.
15. material curtesy from https://www.paintedcats.com/jean-mill-.html