Feedback on Canine Cash Crop
(Page 4 of 6)
September/October 1972
By the Mother Earth News editors
All these failed pets spread discomfort and misery among the popu lation. They become a misery to themselves as well, and they add one more black mark against the name of dog. For, let's fact it, there are more people in this world who dislike dogs than who like them. Dog ownership in our crowded world is a privilege. If you care about owning a pet, then it is your duty to win friends for your little beasts, not make enemies for them. The day may soon come when we will be severely restricted on pet ownership. When it comes, the operators of puppy mills wilt have speeded up the event.
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How does this follow? Well, A relates to Bin the following ways. Every breed of dog now recognized by the AKC arid UKC, which by their appearance, adaptability, special talents, skills, or just plain charm — in short that one breed of dog which attracts your attention as the one you would like to own — has done so because of the efforts of a few devoted hobbyists who worked hard to achieve just those characteristics you admire. Look at a typical four-generation pedigree of any attractive purebred dog, of a breed that has not become over-popular, and you will find the names of thirty ancestors. All thirty names are there for a particular reason, a well-thought out purpose. Some of those reasons may later have proved to be wrong, and some breedings very likely didn't achieve the purpose intended. Nevertheless the owners were trying, Dog 1 was bred to Dog 2 for a purpose, to achieve a shorter hack in the resulting progeny, a longer coat, a miller disposition, a keener nose, a cleverer brain, or ears that would stand naturally. Then Dog 3 was bred to Dog 4 for another reason. The resulting dogs, 5 and 8, were bred together to achieve or maintain the same qualities. Moreover, the puppies that were born were culled. Some that did not measure up were sold cheaply as pets with the understanding they would be spayed. Some, nature's misfits were put down at birth. In most breeds this has gone on for at least 100 years in some much longer, The Kerry blue terrier, the English springer spaniel, the Irish wolfhound that you admire today, achieved his balanced good looks and his special character because of those older breeders' efforts.
However, it is a truism among breeders that once a particular breed captures the public fancy, it is on the skids. Experience has proved this to be a fact over and over again, for reasons not perfectly understood. But they rest somewhere among the fallacies of Dorothy Lockard's arguments. Nowhere, for instance, does she exhibit any concern for the breed she is working with. She advocates breeding any bitch to any dog, as long as it is healthy and of the same breed. Special breed type can be lost in a couple of generations by following such practices. Nowhere does she mention temperament. Many qualities of temperament are genetic in origin.
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