Quote:
Originally Posted by Rerun
George A Padgett:
George A. Padgett, DVM, professor of pathology at Michigan State University, is one of the world's most celebrated researchers, writers and lecturers on the entire subject of canine genetic diseases. He has published numerous papers and has appeared before close to 100 breed clubs, speaking on this specialty
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Obviously mixed breed dogs can get any number of problems, but that really isn't the issue, the issue is out of a thousand muts and a thousand pure bred king charles spaniels which will have the higher percentage of dogs showing genetic complaints, or, to take German Shepherds again, will a German Shepherd have a much higher chance of having hip problems then a mut.
It is basic genetics that if you constantly breed within a fixed group and don't introduce outside genetic material then eventually that group will become affected by inbreeding, muts have, by definition, lots of mixed genetic material where as commercial dog breeders, particularly puppy mills tend not to care or bother about it.
It is also utterly predictable that certain traits that have become breed standards are inherently unhealthy, bulldogs and sharpeis that have been bred to emphasise loose folds of skin have issues with rashes, skin complaints and eye problems purely they have been bred with extremely loose skin for appearence sake.
I don't have a problem with their being pure bred dogs, I have a problem with this becoming the majority of dogs out there, it used to be that most people had some kind of mut and a few people had pure breds, this meant that most dogs were bred as a result of family pets getting pregnant with a very few coming from breeders who by definition were small scale enthusiasts, it is the large scale production of pure breds by puppy mills in order to provide every to dick and harry with a dog that most cant look after properly as it is.
I have a mixed breed Jack Russel, everyone is amazed he is a quite calm dog, but that is precisely because he is a mixed breed, Jackies are a highly energetic and yappy hunting dog, I specifically looked for a mixed breed to deemphasise that trait.