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ohnofixit:impish-iggies:cynological:tinybigpaws:twocorndogs:engelhunddachshunds:twocorndogs:Keller’s Cause:This is an actual statement made by the Australian Shepherd Club of America (ASCA) on their website. Merle to merle breeding is a reality that some choose to ignore. It was done in the past, and we wouldn’t have the Australian Shepherd breed we have today had it not been, but the reality is that this practice is outdated, unnecessary, and immoral. It needs to end. Now.We have a petition against ASCA, in which we respectfully ask they follow in the footsteps of kennel clubs in Europe, and ban merle to merle breeding. You can find the link to our petition here:https://www.change.org/p/ann-dechant-preston-kissman-laura-gibson-australian-shepherd-club-of-america-please-ban-merle-to-merle-breedingASCA claims that it strives to better the breed, but how can they do that when they are openly encouraging the breeding of disabled puppies, and then instructing breeders to take those puppies (that they created themselves), and disposing of them?Please join us in our cause. It’s time to end merle to merle breeding.I am all for ending merle to merle breeding, but no need to demonize the club over their statement. Cull used so mean strictly killing puppies. Now there are two terms. Hard cull, rarely used, meaning killing puppies, or the way more common version of soft culling. That just means neutering undesirable dogs to keep them out of the breeding population. I’m more than sure that’s what they meant.it says cull them at birth and then forget themnewborn puppies are not spayed/neuteredthey mean kill them^I don’t have much issue with culling unhealthy puppies, but what I DO have issues with is intentionally breeding for something where you have 25% of the litter being born with preventable issues.^This.To me, there’s a big difference between culling puppies incidentally born with significant congenital health problems and intentionally breeding two dogs knowing full well that some or all of the offspring will be born with congenital defects and rationalizing that decision by euthanizing those affected puppies as an unfortunate but “unavoidable” consequence of breeding for “the best" of the breed. Of course, if breeding for “the best” dogs in a breed inextricably involves producing dogs which are unsound enough that breeders routinely cull them as young puppies, something is very wrong with those breeders’ definition of “the best.”The Dalmatian Club of America is absolutely terrible in this regard as well. They explicitly state on their website that all deaf puppies should be euthanized and absolutely NOT placed in pet homes or rescues. This is pretty horrendous considering that nearly 1 in 3 Dalmatians are born either unilaterally or bilaterally deaf according to the studies conducted by GM Strain, one of the leading experts in congenital pigment-related deafness in dogs and cats. Ironically, the DCA has sponsored some of these studies and yet they misrepresent his findings on their website and even totally leave out important findings of his research because they’re incompatible with the breed standard and apparently don’t want to encourage breeding for health over appearance.You can read the DCA’s statement on the euthanasia of deaf puppies in full here: http://www.thedca.org/deaf1.htmlSome AKC Dalmatian breeders DO in fact surrender deaf puppies to rescues rather than euthanizing them, but they are forced to do so anonymously for fear of retaliation by the breed club and general harassment by “responsible” Dalmatian breeders who view euthanasia as the only option for the large percentage of puppies born deaf.The good news is that in the case of Aussies and other Merle breeds, simply banning Merle X Merle matings will certainly reduce the incidence of double Merles. The bad news is that double Merles will still be born unintentionally due to the highly unstable nature of the mutation responsible for Merle, unless every Aussie considered for breeding is tested for the presence of M and M© (cryptic Merle). M© is a slightly different allele than M which encodes for Merle but due to a truncation of the poly (A)-tail of the SINE responsible for the Merle phenotype, M© dogs will not be phenotypically Merle though they can produce double Merle dogs when bred with Merles as they are genetically Merle. IIRC, there’s only one lab test which can determine whether a dog carries m, M, or M© alleles in the SILV gene. However, since poly (A)-tails are extremely evolutionarily unstable by nature, even that is not a 100% foolproof method and dogs cannot be cleared by ancestry unless both parents are tested to be homozygous non-Merle. You can read about this in detail here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3ry0Kv4xqooS09mcDZ3QnFjU28In short, yes, banning Merle X Merle breeding is an excellent first step, but it’s important to realize that Merle is a very tricky mutation that can cause congenital defects via several complex mechanisms, even in a heterozygous state. It’s not only inherently unstable and unpredictable due to its genetic structure but it also interacts with other pigment related genes resulting in a compounded risk for health defects (predominantly an increased risk of deafness and ocular defects).(And yes, this is a teeny little preview of the canine coat color genetics and health article I’ve been working on for several months now. I WILL finish it someday, dammit.)Just as a quick follow up & fact check:This is a real (though not current) quote and it is using cull to mean kill. It was on their website at least back to  2010, and the page has been pulled from the website within the last month.Here’s the relevant text, from a Wayback site grab, Jul 29 2016, for anyone who would like the context:However, if your bitch is merle, you must make one decision. Are you prepared to cull the defective white puppies? If not, breed her to a solid dog. If you decide to breed merle to merle, there are a few basic things to know: [omitting some genetics background.]In litters from merle to merle matings, a breeder will statistically average one defective, homozygous merle puppy out of four. This will vary from one to many defective puppies in any given litter. If you realize these puppies are going to be deaf or have eye defects, it is not too difficult to cull them at birth. This should be done as soon as possible after whelping since there is no reason to stress the bitch with nursing extra pups. If you cull all puppies with white off the blaze, collar, socks, white chest and belly patterns, there are no borderline pups. Defective, homozygous merle puppies are often primarily white with just patches of color, and nearly always have a lot of white on the head. Puppies with each eye surrounded with color, color over the ears, and no white on the body behind the shoulder should be sound. The patterns seem to be the key. Sometimes a puppy without very much white, but with mismarkings on the body, such as a stripe running up from the underside, will be defective. There are many breeders who said they would keep excessive white puppies long enough to see if they are sound. They then are faced with the sad task of having a cute, fuzzy puppy destroyed because it is deaf, blind or both. Some people have given these pups away, or even sold them. If you really care about the Australian Shepherd, dont do it! That white Aussie is advertising the Australian Shepherd Breed everywhere it goes, as well as your breeding program. So many times the end of the story is the heartbreak of the child you gave that cute white puppy to crying because the dog never knew the family car was coming- he never saw or heard it start. The best way is for you, the breeder, to cull those white-factored puppies at birth, and then to forget them and enjoy your healthy, sound litter. Another option is to simply do a solid to merle breeding, and eliminate the possibility of the homozygous merle. wayback link here.Wow, this is appalling, and completely eliminates any intention I ever had of owning a merle animal. -- source link
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