Over at The Field magazine, they ask: What do you think is more important; breed purity or healthy pups?
It's an interesting question first asked of, and answered by the Kennel Club in 1897 when that organization was still housed in the offices of The Field magazine.
Back then, when presented with inbred Scottish Deerhounds falling sick and dying prematurely, the Kennel Club rejected outcrossing for health in favor of sickness and breed purity.
Today's answer remains largely the same. Writing about Dalmations, David Tomlinson notes that:
Though the spotted coat might please the human eye, it comes with a number of genetic disadvantages, one of which is congenital deafness. A significant number of puppies are born deaf or partially deaf, a problem common to many albino or piebald animals. According to the Kennel Club, “not enough is known about congenital deafness to be able to offer any firm breeding advice. However, scientists at the Animal Health Trust have suggested that it may be possible to reduce the risk by only breeding from bilaterally normal hearing parents.” Owners are encouraged to have their dogs BAER (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response) tested.
Sadly, deafness is not the Dalmatian’s only genetic problem. Equally serious is hyperuricosuria, a condition in which the dog’s liver has difficulty in breaking down uric acid, leading to kidney and bladder stones. This is an inherited condition and one that all pure-bred Dalmatians can suffer from, though it particularly affects older males. In a ground-breaking attempt to solve the problem, the Dalmatian-Pointer Backcross Project was started in 1973 by Dr Robert Schaible, a medical geneticist then at the University of Indiana. He used a champion English pointer sire on a pure-bred Falmatian bitch in a bid to eliminate the faulty gene. Just one of the offspring of the original litter was bred to another Dalmatian.
Today, 18 or 19 generations on, the LUA (low uric acid) dogs descended from the pointer are visually indistinguishable from a pure Dalmatian and the high uric acid gene has been eliminated (though not other faults, such as congenital deafness, but selective breeding can largely eliminate this). However, one major problem soon emerged: show enthusiasts in the USA refused to accept dogs from the Backcross Project.
There was equal resistance on this side of the Atlantic. When the Kennel Club allowed Dalmatian enthusiast Julie Evans to exhibit a backcross bitch called Fiona at Crufts in 2011, the two British Dalmatian clubs condemned the Club’s decision, calling it arrogant and unacceptable. Breed purity, it seems, is more important to many people than the health of their dogs. Despite this, Evans’s Tyrodal kennel remains dedicated to breeding what she calls “the total dog… show quality, healthy genetics and with sound temperament”.
Today, there are LUA Dalmatians in the UK and Europe, all descendants of the Backcross Project, though sadly the majority of Dalmatian breeders still put breed purity before health. The project remains a classic example of how carefully considered outcrossing can be hugely beneficial to a breed. However, it is also a sad reminder of the resistance pedigree-dog enthusiasts display to any animal they consider to be a mongrel. Surely sound health should be every breeder’s number-one priority?
So there is the Kennel Club answer as it has always been: failed 19th Century eugenics theories, and the sniffing pretensions that support them, matter more than healthy dogs that are free from pain, confusion, and misery.
Related:
** The Kennel Club's Dalmatian Test
** The Defective Dalmatians at Crufts
** The Dalmatian Club Embraces Purity and Pain
** The Dalmatian Club Hopes You Won't Read This
** LUA Dalmatians Join AKC!
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