# Why don't we ever see midget animals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [October 23, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-ever-see-midget-animals/270785 "2004-10-23T17:34:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chotii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@Chotii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chotii)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-ever-see-midget-animals/270785/1 "2004-10-23T17:34:58Z")
In the Staff Report [How Come We Never See Midget Animals?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/manimalmidget.html): The author says > [@](#): > > Dwarfism is less common but far from unknown in vertebrates Actually, dwarfism is well known in cattle. In [this article about dwarfism in cattle](http://www.buelingo.com/pastarticles/where.html), the author states: > [@](#): > > I’m sure many of you reading this have been in the cattle business long enough to remember the days of the 1940’s, '50’s and '60’s when we had some dwarfism in the beef breeds. This was brought about by a selection for smaller cattle. If we go through that again I can almost promise you, that we will develop dwarfism in our cattle breeds again. Well now, I’ve never raised cattle, but my vo-ag teacher in high school showed them when _he_ was in high school or college - that’d have been the 60s, I guess - and he told me about the steers they showed at the Cow Palace that only came up to his waist. But, he said, they started having a lot of dwarfism in the calves, the shorter the pastern bone was bred to be. Some kind of connection between the length of the pastern bone (that is, between the knee and the fetlock) and dwarfism. Dwarf cattle often have other abnormalities that mean they don’t survive. It’s self-limiting. I suspect this is the case with many other species as well. I don’t know how many \*humans \* with dwarfism do _not_ survive to birth, or die shortly after, but I suspect the number is high. ---
**Author:** ![CREAMASTER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CREAMASTER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CREAMASTER)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-ever-see-midget-animals/270785/2 "2004-10-23T19:22:56Z")
There are cats that people breed with that same attributes as Dwarfs, (or is it Midgets… Little People? Sorry if I’m using the wrong term.) normal sized bodies, little tiny legs. Some are called Kangaroo Cats, some are called munchkin cats and strangest I think are named Squitten. Some links: [http://www.geocities.com/empyrium\_2000/index.html](http://www.geocities.com/empyrium_2000/index.html) [http://www.geocities.com/CompactKatz/past.htm](http://www.geocities.com/CompactKatz/past.htm) [http://www.messybeast.com/squitten.htm](http://www.messybeast.com/squitten.htm) ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-ever-see-midget-animals/270785/3 "2004-10-24T04:00:14Z")
Just my couple of pennies worth. We have a colony of hairless mice at work and they often have dwarves in the litter. I’ve tried separating and giving extra feed to them but they never survive more than a month or two. They usually have eye problems as well. Actully, I’ve been trying to get dwarf mice but no luck so far.