What Can We Learn From This?

Not too long ago, I posted a video of the Show Dog world that was produced by the BBC entitled “Pedigree Dogs Exposed”.

Three years after, the follow up video was produced.

There are of course always two sides to the story and some may agree that it is a form of political unrest among breeders within their respective clubs and in my opinion, stuff like that happens in all Show world regardless of species and breed. Most often, it is due to “competitiveness” and the need for glory in winning. When watched with an open mind, these videos do make a lot of sense.

I can definitely relate when it is mentioned that badly inbred animals tend to be sterile. It finally answered the question why certain breed of rabbits are “difficult” to work with especially in the breeding department. I understand now that there is a limit to what Mother Nature will accept. There is a point when Mother Nature will stop producing animals that are totally unfit be it in captivity or in the wild.

I recently updated my pedigree software and there was a new field added to the application – COI%. At first I found this new field totally annoying but after watching the second video, I found that it means Coefficient Of Inbreeding. In short, it is an indicator in percentage how inbred my animals are. There is still much to learn on this part and I will definitely make full use of it in effort to ensure that what happened to the dog breeds will not happen in my rabbitry. I strongly believe that our pets deserve to be healthy and lead normal lives.

I can totally understand why as much as most would accept the concept put forth by these videos, there may be strong opposition by hard core breeders as well. Different individual will protect certain interest that they rely on to survive in life.

As for me, I learned that inbreeding does more harm than good to our animals and narrowing the gene pool is not the right way moving forward. Not to ruffle any feathers, I have no intention or whatsoever to change the breed standards. The breed standards can still be in place in my opinion and I rather take 100% full responsibility in my way of breeding. I have always taken pride in working my lines slowly and I applaud what the Dalmation breeder has done in fixing a genetic fault. This is a fine example of what “One Step Back, Two Steps Forward”. If it means that we can improve the future of the animal’s overall well being, we should take the step even if it means taking a longer time to achieve what we want to achieve. I am also glad to know that crossing two rabbits of different lineage is much better in the long run.

Like what Fiona’s owner  (the Dalmation dog in the second video) said, “When you breed healthy animals, you bring it to the FUTURE”, I cannot agree more!