Immune System Breakdown: Comparing bp morphs to purebred dogs

[Skiploder]

The reasons why purebred dogs are rife with genetic issues is less a line breeding issue and more of the fact that once breed types were established and set, registrations were closed. Then things became even more muddled when that limited pool was narrowed down to define the breeds by the aesthetic fads of the day.

There are several blogs and sites that go deeper into this issue - Terrierman's Daily Dose, Retrieverman, Border (Collie) Wars and Pedigree Dogs Exposed are but a few. It's a more complex issue than linebreeding. You have to look at how breeds have evolved over the last century and how that evolution has been dictated by interpretations of the breed standard. A newfoundland today does not look like the newfie of 100 years ago, nor does the boxer, the poodle, the pug, the shar pei, the peke, etc. etc.

When you start breeding english bulldogs in such a way that you exaggerate the underbite, accentuate the bow legged walk and increase the severity of brachycephalia - when you take the neopalitan mastiff and accentuated the hippo gait or the skin folds - you end up with the genetic messes that are currently being bred. You are programming the breed to have heat related respiratory issues, skin fold infections, elbow, knee and hip dysplasia and entropion/ectropion. Again, instead of offering opinions, read the data, watch the Pedigree Dogs Exposed video, and then comment.

We do the same with snakes. When you selectively breed for an aesthetic, you are narrowing down the diversity of the gene pool and you take into account all the health risks that come with that specific aesthetic. When the starter stock of antaresia spp. were first smuggled out of Australia and into the States, no one knew the localities of the smuggled animals and several breeders admitted to not knowing how to tell apart a stimsons and a childrens. Yet today, in the States we have people claiming to be breeding locality antaresia...................what?

Same with drymarchon - people are now breeding lines based on aesthetics instead of locality. When you breed for aesthetics, you are introducing a whole set of risks into a group of animals. You are potentially sacrificing health for looks. It's more than a linebreeding issue.......it's an issue even narrower than that.