Category: Breeds and Breeding

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Man’s Best Friend Betrayed

Dogs have been human companions for a long time. A recent study suggests that the relationship between humans and dogs started about 30 000 years ago, when fur-clad humans were living in caves and hunting woolly mammoths. “Dogs were our companions long before we kept goats, sheep or cattle,” said Professor Johannes Krause, one of the researchers from Tubingen University in Germany.

But even if this is not a proven hypothesis, we have been friends with dogs for at least 15 000 years. It’s a well-established fact that the quid pro quo between humans and dogs has existed longer than modern civilisation.

Human relationships with non-human animals started with survival needs: assistance in acquiring food and safety. There is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living things, and this helps explain why ordinary people care for and sometimes risk their lives to save domestic and wild animals.. The companion animal demonstrates how humans love life and want to support and sustain life. Continue reading “Man’s Best Friend Betrayed”

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The BS in BSL…

Breed-Specific Legislation is problematic for the simple reason that the notion of ‘breed’ is itself questionable, and if the very essence of the idea has no legitimacy, then any legislation based on it must be hopelessly flawed.

Breed-Specific Legislation has no basis, either in a scientific or social context. It is rooted in preconception  and ignorance concerning the relationship between breed and behaviour, and since ‘breed’ is not a scientific classification, we only have the opinions of a relatively ignorant majority to refer to.

“Politicians, prosecutors, attorneys, newspaper reporters, TV and radio station personalities, breeders, trainers, animal control officers, veterinarians, shelter workers, dog fighters, street thugs, and just about anyone able to speak has an opinion or personal theory about the strength and temperament of the American Pit Bull Terrier. These opinions and theories are based on a dizzying mixture of personal experience, media-induced images, rumours, myths, speculation, fear mongering, and personal or political agendas.” ~ Karen Delise, Pit Bull Placebo

This is partly due to a lack of understanding of ethology (the scientific study of animal behaviour), statistics and their validity, integrity and reliability of media reporting, ability of the public to identify breeds or to recognise signals given by aggressive dogs, and the contribution of human factors to animal attacks on humans.

In combination, these elements all add up to such a significant misinterpretation of the events and the decisions made Continue reading “The BS in BSL…”

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Letter to KUSA: A member tells it like it is…

I have been a member for over 15 years and I am sorry to tell you the efficacy and image of KUSA is severely tarnished in the public eye.

You have breeders who are “puppy farming ” to the nth degree, breeders selling dogs to pet shops and puppy brokers and yet as the national governing body you do nothing?

I have personally sent you 2 names of abovementioned examples and they are still carrying on – bragging the dogs are registered with papers and they are! Open the junkmail gumtree, olx  and see for yourself…

If KUSA wishes for the dog world to increase in value and stature you need to stop being a toothless tiger and do something. Disbarr them, they will not be able to show (not that they are) nor charge the exorbitant prices they are for the puppies! (Which fyi is the reason they breed!!)

You also can control the number of litters registered per breeder per year that way you will see who is in it for the breed or greed. its the breed lovers that you need not the money makers!!

Or is KUSA enjoying their name dragged through the mud and the breeds destroyed by indiscriminate continuous litters? Continue reading “Letter to KUSA: A member tells it like it is…”

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Will the ‘Ethical Breeder’ please stand up?

Why is there a certain group of people who are let off the hook, because they are “registered” show breeders, who breed for only one purpose “breeding the perfect animal for the show bench” (which is a total nonsense, because judging is subjective and the breed standard is a bunch of crap based only on somebody’s desired view of what the outside of the animal should look like – and which ignores 99.75% of the genome – and which breed standard can be changed whenever it suits the show scene).

The other group of people are those who do not register or show their animals, but who do exactly the same thing – they mix and match, crossbreeding or not, but they are known as “backyard breeders” and people say they must be stopped. Why must they be stopped?

Very often the difference between a “registered breeder” and a “backyard breeder” is merely that the registered breeder is driven by competition and ambition to breed to excess (sometimes 30-40 females and several studs) in pursuit of the “perfect specimen”, while the other breeder has one or 2 females and breeds a couple of litters a year.

What makes registered show breeders special? A look at the state of pedigreed animals reveals that they certainly cannot be “improving the breed”, because many of the breeds are physically and genetically in a mess and have deteriorated over the 130 years that the breeding game has been played. Why is it OK for them to breed and nobody else? What are their qualifications, and are any required before joining the “registered breeder club”? Why the double standard? Continue reading “Will the ‘Ethical Breeder’ please stand up?”

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Just for SHOW

“The time has come where we’ve just got to give up this kind of “master race” mentality that we have about dogs. Our system of breeding dogs, of isolating small populations called breeds and then practicing eugenics, generation after generation after generation, all of those dogs are inbred beyond belief. It’s not good genetics and it’s not good dog breeding.” ~ Ray Coppinger (author of Dogs – A New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behaviour and Evolution) in Dogs and More Dogs (Nova, 2004)

There is a common call, among animal welfare workers, for breeding of companion animals to be regulated, because there are too many animals and not enough homes, and that this should be achieved through legislation prohibiting breeding unless done so by ‘registered breeders’, and by this they mean breeders who are registered with one of the breed associations or ‘kennel clubs’. The intention is that breeding should be the province of experts who have the necessary expertise to do the job in a manner that is beneficial to the animals and the community. In principle, I agree with this ethic.

Download the full PDF version here (31 pages, 700Kb): Just_for_Show

The difficulty I have with linking ‘ethical breeding’ with the breed associations and the pedigreed breeding community is that there are significant problems with the mindset and practices of the ‘purebred’ syndrome.

Watch this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Hfqv0uCrg (Pedigreed Dogs Exposed)

And this one on cats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YUksJvEcsY (The Insanity of Show Breeding)

Note: The issues highlighted in this article apply equally in breed-specific terms to cats as well as dogs.

Early dog breeding mimicked natural selection, in that dogs were bred to work; the dogs that could herd sheep or cattle, or that could defend against intruders, etc., were the ones that were bred to produce the next generation. This process over time produced the modern breeds. However, with the advent of dog showing in the middle of the nineteenth century, the focus shifted away from function to aesthetics.

The Show Ring has also been largely responsible for the decline of breed purpose, working ability and temperament in a great many breeds, notably sporting breeds, herding breeds and sled dog breeds. The quick and easy gratification of blue ribbons and gilt trophies all too readily supplants the hard work necessary to preserve and advance canine working abilities. Continue reading “Just for SHOW”

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Face to Face with PIT BULLS: The Real Deal

I saw this recently and I heard subsequently that it had been cited in a radio program:

Ten Commandments of Pit Bull Ownership

  1. Thou shalt NEVER trust thy Pit Bull not to fight
  2. Thou shalt contain thy Pit Bull securely when not supervised by an adult
  3. Thou shalt NEVER leave thy adult Pit Bull alone and unsupervised with another dog
  4. Thou SHALT attend obedience classes most faithfully with thy Pit Bull
  5. Thou SHALT keep thy Pit Bull socialized with ALL KINDS of people
  6. Thy Pit Bull wilt NEVER be allowed off-leash in a public place
  7. Thy Pit Bull wilt NEVER be allowed to roam free in thy neighborhood, EVER!
  8. Thou SHALT take thy well trained Pit Bull out in public and show him/her off – on leash for good breed PR!
  9. Thy Pit Bull shalt go forth into the world as an ambassador of the pit bull breed
  10. THOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY WRONG DONE BY THY DOGS!

I thought I would use these ‘commandments’ as a framework for an analysis of the breed from a real-world perspective rather than a sensationalist one, since a list like the one above reinforces all the preconceptions about the breed and causes people to fear them. Continue reading “Face to Face with PIT BULLS: The Real Deal”