The actress Angelina Jolie just got a double mastectomy...
The actress Angelina Jolie just got a double mastectomy because DNA testing shows she carries a genetic mutation which suggests she has an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent chance of developing ovarian cancer in her lifetime.
A double mastectomy and a salpingo-oophorevtomy (removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries) greatly reduces the chance of cancer in the same way that a clear-cut of a forest lessens the chance of forest fire. Jolie wrote an op-ed about all this in The New York Times yesterday. Read it.
This morning, I got notice that a Finnish web site called mydogdna went live yesterday. The web site purports to be a virtual one-stop shop for genetic health testing for dogs.
Let me stretch a bit, and say what I believe will be true: this company will have no impact at all on the health of dogs in general or on the health of specific breeds.
The reason for this is simple: the folks who really work dogs are breeding for work first, and nothing else second. The folks who are really breeding for show are breeding for ribbons first and nothing else second.
As for the vast majority of dog dealers and hobby breeders, they have no idea what they are doing, and neither do their customers. If they did, they would be adopting perfectly healthy and low-cost dogs directly from the local pound.
Angelina Jolie and her husband, Brad Pitt, are case examples: They acquired the most obviously and famously unhealthy dog in the world -- an English Bulldog. Adopt kids? Sure. Angelina was all in, as she no doubt knew the genetic load she carried. But a dog? No research needed there!
Nor would it have mattered to most people. After all, it's not the breeder or even the owner of an English Bulldog that has to struggle with breathing in air every moment of their life.
In that way, dog owners are a bit like teenage boys looking at lumps of well-placed fat on Jolie's sleek frame. Sure those tits might kill her, but she sure is cute now, and besides by the time breast or ovarian cancer gets her, she will have wrinkles and a bit more weight and carnal desires will have moved on. She will be last season's dog. Who cares what happened to her or how she died. Old actress, free to good home. She will no longer be "winning ribbons."
As for the genetic testing of dogs for disease, an increasing number of tests are available, but the dog show culture is such that no one makes the results of "bad" tests available. To do so not only implicates your own dog and your own judgment (you paid money for that diseased dog?), but also the breeder's entire line, as well as all those he or she sold to in the past.
Scores, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars, are in the swing and wrecked reputations and bad blood are assured, and the chance of litigation related to defamation is not zero. Better (and cheaper) not to know!
With that said, and because we all learn more from story than from lecture, or even example, let me offer this:
.A Parable About Canine Genetic Testing
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The Man Who Bought A House
by Richard Packham
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In this town there lived a man who had been able to save enough money from his hard work that he decided that he was now able to afford a very nice house for his family. In one of the nicer parts of town was a beautiful old house that appeared to be vacant, and he often went by and looked at it from the street. The more he looked at it, the more he fell in love with this old house.
One day as he was standing admiring this house, he was approached by a very nice-looking gentleman who said to him: "I have noticed you frequently admiring this fine old house. I happen to be the agent for the owner, and I am authorized to sell it, if I can find a buyer." This was, of course, good news to the man, since the more he had looked at the house, the more he wanted it for himself and his family.
The agent took the man into the house and showed him through it, and everything the man saw made him want the house even more. The house was beautifully designed and built, with skill and imagination, in a style which was no longer very popular among most people, but which he and his family had always found attractive. He could picture in his mind how happy and comfortable his family would be there. It seemed that his fondest dream was about to come true. The man bought the house.
Before the man moved his family into the house, he asked the agent about the usual inspections, for termites, dry rot and other possible structural problems. The agent told him that everything had been inspected thoroughly by his staff. "You can take my word for it: this house is sound and solid. It is the finest house in the city!" The man thought for a moment that he should ask to see the inspection reports, but the agent was the kind of person that inspired trust and confidence, and the man had a strong feeling deep in his heart that the agent would not try to deceive him about something so important.
The man and his family moved into their home, and it was even more lovely and comfortable than he had imagined. They invited their friends and relatives to visit them, and they were able to entertain them graciously and hear their guests' praises of their beautiful home.
One evening his brother was visiting. The brother was a meddlesome and sometimes unpleasant person, but the man tried to be gracious to him because he was his brother.
"This is a very lovely old house you have," said the brother.
"Thank you for the compliment," replied the man.
"How is the foundation? Sometimes these old houses have structural problems."
"Don't worry about that," responded the man. "Everything has been inspected and is in good order."
"Who inspected it?"
The man began to get irritated with his brother. "It's really none of your business, but I'll be happy to tell you. The seller's agent had it inspected."
"Did you examine the report yourself?
This was really going too far, the man felt. But he answered anyway, "I didn't have to. The agent read the reports and told me that they were in order."
"How can you trust the agent that much?" the brother asked, shaking his head.
"I pity you if you have to go through life without trust, without belief, without relying on the goodness of others! Sometimes you just know in your heart that you can trust someone."
The brother said nothing, but got up to leave. "I'll maybe poke around a little outside and look over your foundation. I'm not an expert, but I do have some experience with these things."
"I do not give you permission to go nosing about my house or grounds. You are just looking for something that will give you an excuse to find fault with my home and to spoil my enjoyment of it!"
"I assure you that I am only motivated by my concern for you as my brother. I will not cause any damage." And with that, he left the house.
As he looked around the grounds and examined the house, he had to admit that it was beautiful. But he also knew that paint could hide many problems. Near a corner, in the back, he found a small, almost invisible door that appeared to lead into the basement. It had been sealed shut with a half-dozen screws.
He went back inside and asked the man: "Are you aware of the door into the basement which has been sealed shut?"
"Of course I am aware of it!"
"Why is it sealed shut?"
"Because there is absolutely no need for anyone to go into the basement. There is nothing there."
"Have you ever been there?"
"No, of course not! Why would I want to go down there? I'm sure that it's just dank and musty, and there's nothing there."
"I think it would pay to take a look, to check the foundation."
"Absolutely not!" shouted the man. "This is MY house! It is MY basement! I have no interest in going there, and I forbid you to do so! I told you that the foundation has already been inspected. Now please leave me in peace!"
Rather than argue with the man, the brother left. But the sealed door continued to bother him, and the basement which it concealed. A few weeks later, when the brother knew that the man and his family were going to be away for a day or two, the brother took a screwdriver and a flashlight to the man's house and carefully opened the sealed door.
He had to stoop to enter the dark basement. The man had been right: there was nothing down there, except the posts and beams and braces that held up the house. As he crept among them, lighting his way with the flashlight, he noticed that the beams and posts had thick coats of paint. Everything was covered with paint. He took his pocket knife and scraped away the paint in a few spots, and where he had removed the paint, instead of solid wood he found a lacy, delicate framework of worm holes. He scraped away paint from some of the other structural members, in all parts of the basement, and found that the wood fiber was missing in all of them, either having been eaten by worms or termites, or having crumbled with dry rot. He was horrified. Not a single beam or post or brace could be relied on. He wondered what could be holding up the great weight of the house. It seemed to be only the paint which was covering up the rot. He almost imagined he could feel the house settling, having removed the little bit of paint, and he urgently wanted to escape. He found his way to the door, and closed it carefully after he was again in the sunshine. But his mind was troubled.
As soon as the man and his family returned, the brother came to see him. "I have some terrible news for you," he said. He confessed that he had entered the basement, contrary to the man's order. "But I know you will forgive me when I tell you what I found." He then told the man that his entire house was in danger of falling down because of the worms, termites and rot in the structural members in the basement.
But instead of thanking his brother, the man flew into a rage. "You are telling me this only to rob me of the pleasure I have in living in this beautiful house! How can you attack me like this? How can you say such terrible things about a house that is so beautiful? You obviously are my enemy. You are jealous of me because of my house. You have made up these lies with the sole purpose of trying to destroy my happiness and to cast aspersions upon my house, the agent who sold it to me and the people who inspected it and pronounced it sound. Get out! And because you have become my enemy, I never wish to see you again!"
The brother tried to calm the man. "I assure you that I am not your enemy. I am acting only with your good at heart. Why would I want otherwise?"
The man would not be calmed. "You are trying to destroy my love for this house. Therefore you must have an evil motive."
"Please," said the brother. "Come down with me to your basement, and I will let you see with your own eyes what I have found."
"I am not interested in seeing anything that you have to show me. You are obviously such an evil person that you would stoop to any level to deceive me into believing your lies. You have probably planted phony evidence in my basement. You would twist and misinterpret anything I found so that it would appear to support your filthy lies about my house. No! I will not go into the basement with you! I don't care about your delusions, and I don't have the time to humor you."
The brother was puzzled by the man's obstinacy. He couldn't understand why he wouldn't at least look in the basement himself. Perhaps, by replacing the beams, or by taking other measures in time, the house could be saved. But if nothing was done, the house would surely collapse, sooner or later, perhaps injuring someone.
Seeing that he could not help, the brother left, sad that he had been unjustly labeled an "enemy."
In spite of the man's confidence in the soundness of his house, his brother's words did trouble him for a few days. Finally, he could no longer resist the temptation, and he took a flashlight and crept through the small door into the basement. He looked around and saw where his brother had scraped the paint away to expose the fragile, rotten timbers.
He was furious! Why had his brother done this? He went upstairs to a cabinet and got a bucket of paint and a brush, and carefully repainted all the places that his brother had scraped away. "There!" he said, as he screwed the door back into place.
He decided that he would not tell his wife and family what had happened, because it would only disturb them and spoil the love and pleasure they enjoyed, living in such a beautiful house. n
14 comments:
By the way, I do know the Jack Russell section talks about Japanese terrier. Some web problems still need to get ironed out. I assume they will be.
I read your blog with interest because it often has good information. However, I keep coming across your advice to "adopt perfectly healthy and low-cost dogs directly from the local pound" instead of getting dogs elsewhere. I had always done just as you advise but find that I can no longer bring myself to adopt from the pound because they now require the spay/neuter of puppies (only a few weeks old) which they say causes no harm when, of course, this is not true. As I'm sure you are aware, the pediatric spay/neuter does not allow the "sex" hormones to inform development of body or temperament which in turn leads to all kinds of health and behavior problems (such as increased risk of cruciate ligament tears, increased aggressive behavior, decreased longevity in comparison with later spayed individuals, etc.) When confronted with the choice of a 14 week old pup recently neutered at the pound and a young adult dog from a breed rescue (neutered as an adult), I had to choose the breed rescue dog. I wanted the puppy but not with the baggage of the pediatric neutering. So, I paid five times as much for a dog who may have behavioral habits I will have to work to extinguish when I could have had a puppy whose upbringing could have been overseen by a competent trainer (myself). The pound is not the place it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago. I just couldn't bring myself to get a dog there anymore. BTW, the pup has yet to be adopted so could have had at least one more month of the benefit of all its organs intact.
That's got to be the #1 blog title of all time.
"agreenfire," I am guessing you are actually a breeder of AKC dogs masquerading as a "concern troll" on this blog?
For starts, this is your first post, and your blogger ID has never been looked at by anyone else but me.
Yeah, I noticed.
Why else do I think you are actually an AKC dog breeder and puppy peddler?
Pretty simple. Anyone who has EVER been to a pound or shelter knows that they do not have truck loads of puppies -- they have DOGS.
If you peddle puppies, you naturally think that must be what pounds must be peddling too.
Whoops! Full failure.
Second, no one ever has a lot of dogs. They are not a disposable item like a pumpkin or a T-shirt, as you seem to suggest. Again, if you are an AKC puppy peddler this fact might have escaped you as you are churning dogs. Puppy peddlers do that; real dog owners do not.
Third, you have actually contrived a health problem that not only does not exist for 95 percent of dogs at pounds, it barely exists at all in the real world. Not only are puppies not normally found at pounds, but the health consequences of very early spay neuter are both sex-linked AND breed-linked. Whoops again!
Finally, the health records of pound dogs (spayed early or not) are STILL better than for AKC dogs (spayed early or not)-- as determined by canine health insurance records which have cash-dollar premiums attached to them.
So, to recap: we have a troll who has NEVER been to a pound who thinks PUPPIES are what are to be found at the pound, and who thinks NO OTHER dog can be found there but a just-neutered large breed puppy dog. Ha!
Moron.
Go away.
Real people have real names, real email addresses and real concerns. You small of Craig's list and an AKC puppy mill.
P
Thanks Redhorse. I have waited years to use that graphic for something too!
Angelina was crazy as a bed bug as a young teen, but she grew up to be a very smart, very determined, and very impressive woman. She is far from old, and yet she already has a very, very impressive life story for an obit. Hat's off!
P
Wow! I never realized how close minded you are. Quite an agenda you have to accuse me so wildly. I can tell you that of the seven dogs I have owned in my life, not one has had pedigree papers. Four were from the pound, one living off a trash heap, one from a breed rescue and my childhood dog--a cast off of a neighbor. I've bred one litter in my life thirty some years ago out of a mixed spaniel bitch I adored (before they automatically spayed/neutered shelter dogs). I kept one of the seven pups (and made sure the rest got loving homes). The pup lived to be 19 years old (no early spay), also adored by me.
Before I became aware of the dangers of early neutering I had already experienced it. A torn cruciate ligament in my 5 year old neutered male Pitbull mix. Now, an inverted vulva in my current rescue.
BTW,the puppy I had put my name on which you say doesn't exist at the pound can be found at http://psbweb.co.kern.ca.us/AC_Internet/Adopt1.aspx. He's still there if anyone is interested. I'm sad that I can't take on the problems that will probably arise from his all too early neuter. Sex organs are not just spare parts, no matter what they tell you. The dog I am adopting from National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network is being transported by 16 different volunteers the approximately 1,100 miles from it's foster home to my home this weekend.
When you cite canine health insurance records I'm sure you know that they are talking about probability of events which is quite meaningless if your dog happens to be the one who is actually affected.
Sorry I posted here. I thought I liked you. No worries--it won't happen again. Just like I won't get a dog from the pound anymore. Just not worth the woe.
An open mind is a terrible thing to lose. When did that happen to you?
Gabrielle de Benedictis
(real enough last time I checked)
Whatever children Jolie adopted to offset her genetic baggage and carbon footprint was cancelled out by the three children she chose to bear biologically. Two of them are girls, and I fear they too have whatever gene it is that's supposed to cause her to develop two very aggressive forms of cancer. Great job Angelina.
Stouthearted hounds -- She has had THREE biological kids? I didn't realize she had had any! You can tell I am not reading People magazine beyond the cover notes, LOL.
The gene in question is very rare and therefore must "wash out" of the gene pool as a recessive so her kids might escape the bullet.
Testing now gives us all an opportunity to predict how we will die. I am fairly certain we will all die of something. Cancer mortality with the BRC1 gene is not quite as bad as some would have you believe as cancer rates are given for a lifetime. Guess what? Cancer rates for a lifetime are NOT ZERO ever! See >>
http://m.cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/17/6/1535/F1.expansion.html for the full report, but the bottom line is that even with the BRC1 gene you have a 78% chance of making it to 50, a better than 50 percent chance of making it to 60, and a better than one in three chance of making it to 70, and that is without surgery. To put that into perspective, life expectancy for women in 1900 was age 48, and it rose to age 54 by 1920, age 65 by 1940 and age 75 by 1971. So yes, the BRC1 gene is very bad, but not as bad as just LIFE was for my grandmother!
http://m.cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/17/6/1535/F1.expansion.html
Yep, she's had three biological kids with Brad Pitt. One singleton and a set of twins. So that cancels out the three she adopted from around the world.
That's relieving news about the BRC1 gene. I'm not up to date on cancer research, and I agree with you about life in general getting a lot easier. I'm still on the fence about how I feel about the applause she's received over this. She is in a unique situation in that she can not only afford testing, but also an expensive prophylactic surgery AND reconstructive surgery. Most women don't get surgery until they have already been diagnosed and I'm willing to bet almost none got tested beforehand.
What's fascinating to me is that no one seems to have noted that she smoked cigarettes for years (and maybe still does), and drinks (apparently still does) and is in a very dangerous job (riding sidesaddle at full gallop with shotguns?!!).
I am not trying to take anyone's inventory, but I am always amazed and a bit amused at how people react to risk and how bad they are at math.
P.
Have to wonder, if she had removed something that wasn't a sexual characteristic would people be objecting so loudly?
Say, if she had an appendectomy (provided of course the risks were equivalent)?
Simba, I think you are at least partially (and maybe entirely) right.
Of course, live by the sword, die by the sword. Jolie's career started when she played crazy girls and she WAS a crazy girl.
She grew up to be a passable actress in a fantastic body.
No one has ever said she was the world's worst or best actress; her perfomaces are better than passable, but her body and face are a visual delight.
Lots of male actors fit the same frame -- the Robert Redford phenomenon.
I think if Redford got his face rebuilt it would be a very big deal, not because it was sugergy but because it was very visible surgery of his most visible and cash-centered part. Just having all his teeth pulled (all of them??!!) and reimplanted would make the front page if it had happened when he was 35.
That said, women in general are defined by their sexual organs, as are men. If you do not think that is true, then try entering the Olympics under another gender. I am still miffed than I was not even considered for the women's synchronized swimming team, and this despite the fact that I have better breasts than any of them! Sexist bastards.
P
Wow, that was a heck of an attack on agreenfire.
Animal shelters regularly do have puppies, quite a few of them, in fact. (Where do you think the offspring of unneutered pit bulls go?) It's just that puppies tend to get adopted quite quickly.
The pediatric neutering of puppies and kittens is an important health issue, but, for the whole of society, less important than controlling pet populations. Hopefully the transition to using zinc neutering (which keeps dogs intact but nonfunctional) will help the male puppies, at least.
Liz, I have a busy life and I do not waste time with idiots.
"agreenfire" is an idiot who decided to not adopt ANY dog from a pound EVER because of her largely contrived and ill-informed concern about early spay-neuter.
Idiot.
As for anyone who wants to know the comment policy on this blog, please read this >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/2009/01/zombies-time-wasters-and-anonymous.html
Please note that EVERY TIME ANYONE posts on this blog they see these instructions. Every time.
As for Pit Bulls, where do pit bull puppies go? They go to DIE. even if they leave the pound, they go to die most of the time.
I have probably written more about pit bull mortality statistics than anyone you will ever hear of. if you do not know this, you do not read this blog.
For the record, we kill over 40,000,000 pounds of pit bulls a year in this country EVERY YEAR, and we do it in part because people like "agreenfire" prattle on about the "risks" of spay-neuter (and offer deafening silence about Pit Bull populations and kill rates) even as they count the dead pits as ZERO and even as they DO NOT READ the damn research.
Question: Have YOU actually REALLY read the research on spay=-neuter ?
No, not a post about it on a list-serv or Facebook, but the REAL research? I have.
Now establish a base line and look at dog breeds.
Did you notice that the research does not establish a base line? Did you notice that they counted as ZERO all those dead puppies that are the KNOWN, PREDICTABLE AND QUANTIFIABLE part of failing to spay and neuter?
Bingo.
Now run the numbers with that new quantified base line.
Boom. Now you see the problem. It's like looking at the "risks" of birth control for women while counting the risk of a lifetime of constant pregnancy (or even a single pregnancy) at zero.
Idiotic.
I am a demographer by training, which is why I know that these "concerns" about spay/neuter are mostly bullshit, as they do not have a baseline mortality for DEAD dogs at the pound (the most common outcome of failing to spay/neuter), do not factor in breed size (if you give a shit about cancer or dysplasia please do not even CONSIDER a golden retriever, eh?) and also mention nothing about the gender of the dog.
And "agreenfire" will not go to ANY pound to rescue ANY dog because she read on about some large-dog study without a real base line? Gimme a fucking break!
So yeah, I am hard because I do not like idiots. Never have. Never will. No apologies.
And, for the record, this post is not about spay and neutering dogs, is it? It's about GENETIC TESTING.
Focus, focus, focus.
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