this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2024
279 points (85.5% liked)
aww
20043 readers
854 users here now
A place with minimal rules for stuff that makes you go awww! Feel free to post pics, gifs, or videos of cats, dogs, babies, or anything cute and remember to be kind to others.
AI posts must be labeled [AI] in the title and are limited to one per week.
While posting and commenting in this community, you must abide by instance-wide rules: https://mastodon.world/about
- No racism or bigotry.
- Be civil: disagreements happen, but thatdoes not provide the right to personally insult others.
- No SPAM posting.
- No trolling of others.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I think what OC was getting at was how some animal breeds are bred with very limited groups to maintain desired bloodlines/genes. This leads to health issues due to inbreeding.
Pug dogs are a somewhat common example; same with a lot of 'pure bred' dog breeds.
I'm not sure how much that applies to sphinx cats.
With a quick search, this comes up:
https://faqcats.com/is-breeding-sphynx-cats-cruel/
It can be done ethically, with a sufficient gene pool. It can also be done cruelly; especially when profit is involved. I can't say I have much faith in it being done ethically... But I'm sure there are some alright groups out there.
This is what I figured. Thank you.
something else to consider is the breeders chasing certain characteristics - in this case, the very wrinkly skin, akin to the traits seen in Shar-pei and other wrinkly dogs. It rarely results in an animal that's overall healthy and often introduces new issues.
I have an adopted hound who's ears - I'm convinced - could never exist in a viable dog without intense supervision and cleaning, we've tried alternative diets, flushes, allergy meds, and at the end of the day... loads of ear flap mean a big ear canal and not enough discharge to keep them clean. Left to her own devices she'll scratch them up in a few days. I love the dog, but damn... breeding for these characteristics didn't do her any favors.
My adopted 'mostly'Staffy, conversely, is a paragon of excellent diverse genetics, and physically issue free. And thick headed enough that she can stagger the 20lb heavier hound with a well timed head butt.
We're lucky to have animals in our lives, I just hate to see so many examples of abusing our privilege.