Monthly Archives: July 2009

I love the way the free online dictionary Wikipedia.org describes the word Breeder.

A breeder is a person who practices the vocation of mating carefully selected specimens of the same breed to reproduce specific, consistently replicable qualities and characteristics.

This might be as a farmer, agriculturalist, or hobbyist, and can be practiced on a large or small scale, for food, fun, or profit.

And it further described Hobbyist as:

A person who is interested in a subject or an activity as a hobby

And it further described Hobby as:

A hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit

That is exactly what I would like to be referred to maybe minus the profit part on the definition of breeder. Time and time again, I strongly believe that for me, passion outweighs profit anytime. The word profit only means cost cutting in my opinion. Cost cutting ultimately equates to suffering animals.

Profit or fun aside, let’s bring ourselves back to the subject matter. What a breeder means to me?

Not too far in the distant past, breeders are people who consciously put 2 animals of opposite gender together with the intention to produce more. That was about all what a breeder’s role is. Produce more, sell more and earn more. Today I am proud that there is an awareness sweeping across the face of the earth. People are starting to realize that beside from just producing more, they should also produce healthy and good stocks.

Not only breeders are called to produce healthy and good stocks but they now have an even more important role to play. Which is to disseminate crucial information. There are of course breeders from the dark ages still mingling around lurking to pounce on innocent preys caught unaware and off guard. They tend to play with their words and tell of the many lies to get their stock sold.

Some breeders have no qualms passing around genetically challenged stocks, sick animals which causes an outbreak at a fellow breeder’s location and the list goes on. Whatever it is, truth shall always prevail.

So you see, what I am trying to say is that, indeed a breeder is someone that puts two animals together to produce more but there are many more that meets the eye. And the point however I twist and go round the bushes with my words, a breeder remains a breeder whether they are good or bad in our own definitions and expectations.

You do not call a person who puts 2 rabbits of opposite gender together a rabbit PIMP. You call him/her a breeder. Again, not a rabbit PIMP but a BREEDER.

And by all standards, when you breed 2 rabbits of the opposite gender and these 2 rabbits are bought from someone else, the offspring will be considered of your breeding.

The reason for that is that these 2 rabbits did not open the latches to their cage doors and came together to have a jolly good time. No, the breeder will open up the doe’s cage door, pick her up gently and put her into the buck’s cage (after opening the door that is).

So you tell me, in that act of a human being opening the door and placing a female rabbit into a cage where a male rabbit is, what would this action be called?

We in the rabbit world calls it breeding rabbits. And the breeding is done by? The breeder of course! DuHHHhhhHHHhhhhhhHHHhhh…..

If you have been in the rabbit world long enough, you will hear breeders saying, “I am breeding rabbits”.

That means they are deliberately putting together 2 rabbits of their liking and in their best ability judged to be a good match. No breeder with the right frame of mind would say that they own offspring of 2 rabbits not owned by them and are bred by their rightful owner. To say that is totally utter nonsense and outrageous!

In the case of rabbit shows, if someone wins with rabbits bred from my stocks that I have sold him/her earlier. I would be proud that they did well with my stocks. But I could never and should never take credit for those rabbits that won. For it was the good judgment of the winner that he/she bred the rabbits I sold him/her that produced these winning specimens.

Basically, I cannot say that the tallest building in the world is built by me. PERIOD!