Should mating relatives be banned?

Question

Breeders who mate closely related dogs are creating genetically unstable animals, writes Karlin Lillington

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0820/1219158412668.html

Answer 1

I read this article, and I as a breeder actually agree with this statement in the article.

"All of this directly affects the families that buy the vast majority of purebred puppies, who shell out millions on vet bills and may watch the decline of cherished pets to diseases that in many cases could be entirely prevented by better breeding practice and appropriate health testing of breeding stock."

Manditory testing for known genetic diseases in breeding stock was also mentioned as a solution, and once again I AGREE.  Why not.  It would eliminate all the breeders who don't take the health of their breed into consideration.  I breed, and not only do I do ALL the recommended testing, which amounts to thousands of dollars.  I also donate my animals blood to the DNA research foundation to further their studies and to come up with more genetic markers for debillitating diseases.  What would be the result?  People who buy a puppy for a pet, would be less likely to breed the animal, and by the way,...  The breeder actually signs off on the registration paperwork whether a puppy is sold with unlimited registration or limited registration.  This determines if the puppy you get can produce a litter of registered puppies.  Most serious breeders will not sell anything with unlimited registration, unless they know exactly what is happening with that dog.  In most cases they won't even remove their name from the paperwork.  Keeping control of the animals reproduction

rights.

Not all breeders are ogres.  Some actually take great pride in the efforts to make their breed healthier.

Answer 2

inbreeding (father to daughter etc.) no should not be done...but linebreeding (grandfather to grand daughter) has actually ruled out health problems... it should not be done by just anybody or done that often...only people that should do that is someone who knows alot about breeding and understands genetics and health.

Answer 3

Yes and dogs with known genetic disease should by barred from competitions.

Answer 4

If it is possible yes.

Answer 5

Oh God! Here we go again ..... Rosalie has said it all.  Bottom line - Done correctly, and by breeders who KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING (and yes I'm shouting spellcheck), breeding closely related dogs is just one tool available in the art of breeding, and does not necessarily create the monsters people are banging on about .  It can fix desirable traits into a line, be it confirmation-wise, or temperament-wise, whatever. And those who know, know they have to outcross when developing a bloodline, and when!   It's the indiscriminate breeding, done by people who haven't the faintest idea about what they are doing, that causes problems.  We are not talking about human, we are talking dogs.

That programme has A LOT to answer for and one can only hope eventually there will be a follow-up programme to redress the balance.  Although I have to say that programme contained some dreadful images of what can, and does go wrong when breeding is done by the ignorant and uninformed, it's sensationalism peeps and I'd have hoped for, and expected more from the BBC.

Answer 6

Breeding relatives is a tool that can be used by knowledgeable breeders to capture certain genes and homgenize them.  It is how dog breeds have been formed in the first place.

  While overbreeding the same dogs over and over again can cause bad genes to be expressed, by the same token it can also create individuals with the strongest set of genes as well.

  Breeding stronger, better dogs take a lot of courage, and the will to handle what comes of it - you will end up with some very strong dogs, and some that are riddled with defects, which must be either culled or neutered and placed, depending upon the severity of the defect.

  This is why breeding should be done by people who either know what they are doing, or are mentoring with someone who does.  It is far more than just slapping a couple dogs together, whether related or not (and most are related in a local area), and making more of them.

  The blanket statement that related dogs should never be bred is not a useful theory, and not necessarily a responsible thing to propose.

Answer 7

Simply YES!

Answer 8

I'm not a fan of line breeding either.  Though it helps bring out certain desired traits, it also accentuates any negative ones.  I knew a woman that practiced line breeding to get poodles with these beautiful soft, thick, cloud like coats.  They were beautiful, but by the age of five, the offspring tended to lose all their teeth.  (grandfather to grand daughter breeding.)

Answer 9

Defiantly.  If we humans did it we would get done for incest.

Answer 10

Agreed.

Answer 11

Just another case of people that don't have a friggin clue what they're talking about.

If you talk to GENETICISTS, like the late George Padgett, they will tell you that careful, selective inbreeding can be a very useful tool to ELIMINATE genetic diseases from a line of dogs.

It's when you do inbreeding without knowing what you are doing that you run into problems.

Remember, ALL dogs carry genetic diseases.  So do all people, and all living creatures.  The only reason these diseases are more likely to be expressed by inbreeding is because close relative are more likely to carry the same defective genes.  A clever, knowledgable breeder can use this knowledge and inbreeding to pinpoint the animals carrying those genes and eliminate them from the breeding program.