The Bengal breed originated by breeding a wild Asian Leopard Cat (ALC) to a housecat in 1963. Jean Mill then lived in Yuma, Arizona with her first husband who owned a cattle ranch. They purchased an ALC as a pet, which at the time was not illegal. (Now of course it would be.) Jean put the Leopard in a large pen outside her home, and eventually she thought the wild female cat seemed bored. Jean checked with the experts to make sure mating between a male housecat and a female Leopard wasn't possible. They assured her it wasn't. So Jean put in her black tom to keep the female company.

Fairly soon, the impossible happened, and the Asian Leopard mated with her tom. A curious hybrid named 'Kin Kin' was the result. Again, experts at Cornell University believed the female would be sterile. She proved them wrong when she produced a second generation litter. In 1965, Jean's husband died and Jean then moved into a California apartment, thus having to leave her new found fascinating hobby behind. Unfortunately, there are no remaining cats from this original Bengal bloodline.

In 1975 Jean married her second husband Bob Mill and shortly thereafter the modern bloodline of Bengal breed came about. Together they installed large zoo style pens on their California acreage of fruit and oak trees, and they contacted physician professor Dr. Willard Centerwall, MD, who was studying leopards and their partial immunity to feline luekaemia. In trying to find the exact gene or genes involved in this immunity, Dr. Centerwall had mated several leopards to domestic cats. He took blood samples from each hybrid, then needed to re-home the cats elsewhere. Jean offered to keep and breed the hybrids for furthering scientific knowledge, and Dr. Centerwall agreed. Both Jean and the MD shared the desire for creating a 'tame toy leopard,' and he wholeheartedly supported Jean's efforts in doing so.

Jean and her husband went to India in 1980, and while there, they found a domestic street cat with similar colouring and patterning of a leopard. After going through much red tape, they were eventually able to bring the kitten back to the United States to be mated with the female hybrids. In an interview of Jean by Claire Robinson, Jean says that "Millwood Tory of Delhi is found in virtually all Bengal pedigrees."

Originally, Jean began breeding Bengals merely to see if it could be done. Next her desire was to research the stunning coat pattern genetics, and lastly she wished to share this gorgeous new cat with others with a zest for the beauty of wild cats as pets. In the beginning, Jean had numerous opponents from people who thought she was mucking about with Mother Nature. On the other hand, there were also people who very much liked the idea of owning a wild animal for a pet, but actually owning such a wild creature was unrealistic. However, owning a wild-looking yet domestic feline was a happy medium for many. Bengals that are four generations off of a leopard cat have the unique eye appeal of their wild ancestors, but are also docile like their domestic counterparts. They are extremely reliable house pets as well as successful show cats. In today's time, the Bengal breed has become so popular that it can be found in an assortment of countries throughout the world.

The wild leopard cats are not harmed by the usage of their DNA to further domestic cats, and poaching may even be reduced as an outcome. After all, people with 'living leopard' on their laps will not have the desire for a leopard skin coat or accessory. Glenn Stewart, a professor of zoology at California Polytechnic college, said he sees nothing wrong with Bengal breeding provided it doesn't lead to depletion of the wild species solely to breed pets. He explains that "It's something people have done for centuries--selectively breeding wild animals to produce domestic."