Wow. So, after reading that article, I'm definitely not convinced. Breeders were contacted for their opinions and observations... and despite all the breeders generally agreeing that quality of life wasn't affected, the welfare scientists STILL concluded that it was.

Based on what evidence?? Their feelings...??

There is a lot of "squishy" language used - words like may and might and perhaps. No hard evidence and no real data.

I would still really like someone to take a large collection and observe the spider gene for a period of time, and document the observations. I'm willing to listen to numbers, but not opinions that can't really be proven... in that case, I'll just stick to my own opinion based on my personal observations.


I think it's interesting to note that the spider gene is HUGELY represented in the BP world, and is a large foundation for many, many, many morphs on the market today. Large breeders can have hundreds of these animals in their collections - and not one of them is saying the condition is detrimental? That can, of course, open the can of worms that many of the big breeders are in it more for the money than the animals, but there are still a great many that are in the business out of passion for the creatures themselves - and while they all agree the spider gene can cause a wobble, none of them have ever said it decreases the welfare of the animal...? (Example that has been brought forward is caramels and kinking, and you don't see thousands of them for sale anymore).