Saturday, October 14, 2017

Time to End Torture Breeding at the AKC


Torture Breeding is the intentional breeding of an animal to have morphological or inherited defects or diseases that cause distress and suffering.

The Swiss, Austrians, and Germans have their own name for it
-- “Qualzucht” -- and laws that criminalize it.

Under Swiss, German and Austrian law, it's a crime to breed animals in the full knowledge that their offspring are likely to suffer.  Torture breeding laws in these countries ban the intentional breeding of animals that have: 1) difficulty breathing; 2) have motion abnormalities or are lame; 3) are blind or who have bulging eyes or corneal defects; 4) are hairless; 5) are deaf; 6) have neurological issues; 7) have congenital skin disease; or 8) are unable to breed or birth naturally.


Is it time for such a law in the United States?

Who can argue that the intentional breeding of Pugs without noses and with bulging eye issues is not torture?


Who can deny that the breeding of English Bulldogs and French Bulldogs, with faces so smashed they cannot breathe. and are in respiratory distress their whole lives, is not a serious animal welfare issue?

And when these two breeds are among the top ten in the AKC, who can deny that it is time to act?


4 comments:

Dave said...

And let's not forget this poor horse born in Ellensburgh, WA

http://orrionfarms.com/our-horses/el-rey-magnum-rcf

Karen Carroll said...

This type of selective breeding is indescribably sick and I would say perverted. What twisted minds would breed animals with no consideration of quality of life, health or function?

Unknown said...

While I agree with much of this, I'm the happy owner of a wonderful, healthy hairless dog. The xoloitzcuintle is an ancient hearty breed- not an unhealthy dog who suffers.

PBurns said...

The Xolo is a dog bred for an intentional defect that negatively impacts the life of the dog: hairlessess. This hairlessness is due to genetic alopecia caused by a mutation of the FOX13 gene that causes canine ectodermal dysplasia (CED) which not only results in hairlessness, but also results in fairly serious dental issues (i.e. loss of teeth).

The mutation of the Fox13 gene is serious enough that there are no homozygous Fox13 dogs -- they die in utero and are reabsorbed. As a consequence, all hairless dogs are heterozygous for hairlessness, which is to say they have one normal gene and one mutated Fox13 gene for hairlessness. A quarter of the litter of "hairless" dogs will have a normal hairy coat, another quarter — those who inherit the gene for hairlessness from both parents — will die in utero, and the other half will be born heterozygous for hairlessness and, in fact, may have some hair that is shaved off by show ring people who think any hair is a flaw. The fact that this dog is ancient only means ancient people also liked freaks (see the dancing dwarves of the Middle Ages and PT Barnum's side show). All hairless dogs around the world trace to a single gene mutation in the New World approximately 4,000 years ago.